Digimon 02: Waking the Dragons
by Quinton Notwen
Summary: The theft of an old artifact is the beginning of a process that seeks to unleash an ancient force upon the Digital World, a force that wants to destroy the Human World as well as dominate the Digital World.
1. SOS

**SOS**

**No ownership of characters or original concept.**

**888**

"So, do yous have it?" snorted a short digimon.

He crossed his arms, and his green eyes glared at two digimon hovering in front of him. He had a pair of floppy triangular ears. His fur was dark lavender, save for a smiley face on his stomach and his face, which was white. An arrow tipped tail swished behind the purple digimon's body.

The two digimon in front of him were identical. They had tight, black leather on their bodies; only their heads, legs and arms were exposed to so that one could see their lavender fur. Their faces were white and their ears were floppy. Golden, bat wings fluttered, holding the two, twin digimon in the air. Each twin held a tiny scepter with a golden knob at the end.

"Of course we have it, Impmon!" snapped the two digimon in unison. They looked at each other and nodded. "We retrieved it earlier this week, it takes time to travel, you know. It was just where Master had said it would be," The two digimon giggled and then started to recite the words that their master had said, "'in the museum in the Mikemon city.' We got it so don't worry…"

Sunlight flitted in and out of the foliage of the trees by the small stream where the digimon had met. Smoke was rising in the distance where a small burg had built up in the meadow on the other side of the stream. Impmon snorted and snapped his fingers and a puff of fire rose from his fingertips and pointed at the stream. The maroon fireball flashed into the swarming water, poofing into a mote of smoke. He glanced at the twins.

"Jeesh, I hate working with weaklings like yous, but at least we got it," snorted the purple imp as he adjusted a red ascot that was tied around his neck. He extended his gloved hand, "Nows will you hand it over?"

"I don't think so, Master said we're supposed to hold it," said the twin on the right.

"That's right," said the twin on the left, "He doesn't think you'll be responsible with it…not only that, but he said since you can't digivolve to your Champion form, like a pair of loyal twins can," The two twins giggled as Impmon grumbled under his breath. "That you couldn't handle the chores he has set up for us; you're just here to supervise…"

"WHAT!" the wingless digimon yelped as he clenched his fists. He took a deep breath and turned around. He put his red gloved hands on the back of his dark purple head. "Ok, fine, Pal, Pul, yous DemiMamon go about doin' your thing…but we should at least test the merchandise, you know…"

"We were planning on doing just that, Impmon, and more" said the left digimon. "Isn't that right, my most wonderful brother?"

"That's right, Pal, but you're the most wonderful one…" nodded the twin on the right. "We're planning to take the Chosen Ones out of the picture right off the bat, at least until we have the other artifacts. The credit for the plan should go to Pal, though, since it was his cunning mind that thought of it…"

"Oh, Pul, you're far too kind…" giggled the digimon on the left.

"Gah, yous two sicken me," grumbled Impmon as he glared at the water. The reflection of the two digimon hovered behind his, own reflection. His head turned slightly and glanced back at the twin digimon, "So, what are you plannin'?"

"Watch and learn…" giggled the two digimon as the lifted their scepters up. "Appear!" A black orb warped into existence and the right twin caught the sphere in his hand. "See that Shima Unimon over there in the distance?"

"Yeah what about 'im?" Impmon snorted as he watched a zebra striped, unicorn wandering on the far side of the meadow near a bordering forest.

"Keep your eyes on the pony…" giggled the two digimon, "Keep your eyes on the pony…keep your eyes on the pony. Ok…Dark Digi-core, Activate!"

An arrow of darkness tore through the air. Shadows wafted off the stream of black energy as it connected with the striped flesh of Shima Unimon. Impmon yanked his ears down as the horse whinnied in pain, its screeching calls piercing the air around the group of Rookies' ears. The right twin hugged the black orb tightly and the twins dropped to the ground holding their ears.

"Do you think we used too much oomph, Pal?" shouted the one twin as yanked as his floppy ears trying to pin them to his head. His wings quivered as the anguished screeching reverberated across the grassy plain.

"Maybe, Pul," whimpered the other twin as he copied his brother's pose as best he could with one hand.

"Oh, shut up you two…" growled Impmon as he released his ears.

He lifted his head and watched as a dark fog rolled around where the Shima Unimon had been. His eyes widened as long, ivory claws extended from the clouds. A white, horned, tyrannosaur skull rose out of the shadows. An orange, carp-faced missile held into place by hooked vertebrae. The dinosaur skeleton screeched savagely to the cloudless sky, the sun glaring off its ivory bones.

"It worked!" cheered the twins as they hopped up and down, clasping hands and dancing.

"What are you doing?" Impmon yelped as he watched the living fossil screaming and screeching and crashing its bony hands into the ground as it raged. "That thing is…"

"The perfect weapon to lure the Chosen Ones out…" giggled the two twin digimon in a lower more menacing tone. "They depend on the holy ring of that Gatomon that is partnered with the Child of Light. It allows them to do their DNA digivolving, but since the fall of MaloMyotismon, the ring has been returned to the cat."

"So?" snarled Impmon as he looked worriedly at the raging skeleton. "Why did you have to make something as dangerous as Skull Greymon?"

"They'll have to utilize the tail ring to face off with our little concoction, when they do; we'll strike the cat with a bolt of energy from the Dark Digi-core…and that will totally nullify the holy ring…and they'll be unable to reach their Ultimate level and Skull Greymon will totally smash them," explained the twins in unison with increasing excitement. They burst into a bout of cheering and giggling as they imagined the scene. "That's the plan…"

"What if they don't come?" Impmon growled as he watched as the skeletal digimon's rage slowed to a bubbling seethe.

"They'll come because…" The DemiMamon lifted their scepters. "We'll make Skull Greymon attack that city over there…"

"Using the controlling powers of the Dark Digi-core…" Impmon surmised as he narrowed his eyes.

"Yep!" said the DemiMamon lifted the digi-core. "Skull Greymon…listen to our commands…Attack the city you see in the meadow, don't let anyone stop you…destroy the city at any expense…"

The skeleton stopped dead in its flailings. Its large, dark, eye sockets glowed with a soft yellow light. Its horned head turned slowly and the golden eyes glared at Pal and Pul.

"Is he supposed to be doin' that?" asked Impmon with a waiver in his voice.

"No idea…" whispered one of the digimon. His left fang overhung his lip.

Skull Greymon turned its entire body so that it faced the trio of Rookies and though it was on a hill on the far side of the meadow, the large, skeletal digimon made a for an imposing figure. The three Rookies shook slightly, watching in terror as Skull Greymon made its first step toward them, especially when that one step started a clanking, bony sprint toward them.

"Oh…crap…" Impmon murmured as the huge skeleton charged toward them.

"We're out of here!" yelped the twin DemiMamon, as they flew into the air and curled off into the line of trees that ran along the river.

"HEY! You can't just leave me here in the lurch!" Yelped Impmon as he looked up at the oncoming monster.

Impmon trembled and fell backward. He quickly scrambled across the undergrowth, clawing to his feet and started to run. He could hear the loud roar behind him. The ground shook under Impmon's feet as he heard the trees tearing from the ground. A tree trunk smashed into the ground in front of him, bringing the little imp to a skidding halt. He quickly took the chance the wild attack provided and hid in a hole in the tree.

He curled up, hugging his knees. "Stupid DemiMamon, tryin' to take on somethin' too big for them…bunch of brownnosers…" His ears drooped as the harsh, howling roar of Skull Greymon rattled the tree trunk, "Ah, shuddup ya big dummy!" Impmon growled until his tree hideout was kicked and lifted off the ground. He yelped as he rolled in the tree as it flew through the air. "THOSE DEMIMAMON ARE GOING TO GET IT!"

888

"Tseep, Tseep, Tseep," whispered a consistent noise in his ear.

Daisuke grumbled quietly. He shifted in aggravation, turning harshly and yanking the blankets out from under a small, blue creature that was sleeping with him. The little creature was promptly rolled from the bed and fell to the floor, into a pile of clothes and toys and whatever else Daisuke had laying on the floor of his bedroom.

"Tseep, Tseep, Tseep," droned the noise as Daisuke growled and let his eyes open slowly. They lolled over to where a small alarm clock was positioned on a nightstand.

The red letters glowed emotionlessly. The numbers made up of squashed hexagons. Daisuke whined again and put a pillow over his head as the beeping continued.

"It's too early…" whimpered Daisuke as he tossed the pillow to the floor and sat up. His short brown hair was twisted and matted in some places and spiked up at dangerous angles in other places. He glared at the alarm clock, "Six AM is too early…and it's Sunday, too…"

"What is it Daisuke?" asked a small voice that struggled to be heard from under the pile its owner had fallen into.

A round head popped out of the pile, a sock draped between its two, floppy, silken ears. Daisuke reached down and picked up the small, blue creature. It was almost like a small, plush toy, like those Beanie Babies everyone had been crazy about a few years ago. Its body was soft and its arms and legs were stubby.

"Tseep, Tseep, Tseep," the noise chanted in its monotonous tone.

"Ok, ok…" grumbled Daisuke as he stood up and walked slowly over to his desk, taking strategic steps to insure that he wouldn't impale his foot on something hiding in the jungle that he called his bedroom floor.

He finally reached his desk and he pushed a soccer ball off of the chair in front of the workspace. The desktop was cluttered with paper and two or three half gnawed pens. School books were half open and upside down, piled haphazardly on the desk, but those weren't the focus of Daisuke's attention. He glared down at a small machine, about the size of a small calculator. He picked it up and flipped it open, like a cigarette box. A screen glowed to life. A small picture of an envelope appeared on screen.

"It's an e-mail from Koushiro…" whispered the small creature in Daisuke's arms.

"Yeah…what gall to send an email at this time and on a Sunday, too," Daisuke snorted as his tanned fingers swept over the interface of the small digital machine, opening the message that had been sent. Daisuke sighed. "Just like I thought…"

"Emergency in Digital World, meet at my apartment, my parents are already awake," read the creature quietly. It looked up at Daisuke with wide eyes, "I wonder what's wrong in the Digital World…"

"I don't know, DemiVeemon" replied Daisuke as his lips turned down in a frown. "I just hope we can get it fixed before breakfast…"

He stood up, placing DemiVeemon on the desk, and staggered over to a dresser and pulled out some clothes. He quickly changed and then turned around. His hand hands grasped a pair of goggles that hung at the corner of his desk and slipped them on.

"Yippee!" chirped the little creature as he hopped into Daisuke's arms. The boy chuckled quietly as he shook his head.

The rest of the Motomiya household was still asleep. Daisuke tiptoed down the hall in his knee hugging socks and crept over to the small kitchenette his family had. He opened the refrigerator and took out the milk and two bananas. He poured two glasses of milk and handed one to DemiVeemon. He drank the other himself and picked up one banana and, after taking the milk glass from the digimon, gave the other banana to DemiVeemon. Daisuke put DemiVeemon on his head. The little digimon had his banana peeled and half eaten already.

"We can eat as we walk," Daisuke said as he walked over and slipped his shoes on his feet and opened the door to his apartment.

"I'm done…" chirped DemiVeemon as he handed Daisuke the empty banana peel.

Daisuke smirked as he turned and threw the peel away, shooting it like a basketball into the garbage. Daisuke then walked out of his apartment, gently closing the door behind him, peeling the banana as he left.

888

"It's about time you got here," scolded the familiar voice of Miyako. The lavender haired girl glared at Daisuke through her glasses. "The village could be nothing but a smoldering crater by now…"

"It's six in the morning! Who wakes up at six in the morning to do evil?" Daisuke retorted grumpily as he rubbed his eyes.

"Whoever it is, they really pulled a doozy this time…" said a young man in pastel blue, button down T-shirt and a pair of white khakis. His cinnamon hair was tightly combed over his head.

"Izzy's right, just wait until you see what's going on," said a tall, thin boy. He was standing next to Koushiro who was standing in front of a couch. A brown hamster with batwings sat on his head. A white cap covered his golden hair.

"It's Skull Greymon…" Daisuke looked up in surprise at a girl sitting in a chair. She had soft brown hair and German-chocolate eyes. A white cat was sitting on her lap. The girl's arms were held around the cat's chest.

"Hikari, Takeru, is it Agumon…again?" Daisuke eyed the rest of the group.

Iori was sitting politely on Koushiro's couch his head was lowered concentrating on a small dumpling with frilly ears that was resting on his lap. Miyako was sitting with a small winged, ball of pink feathers sitting in her arms.

"No," replied the cinnamon haired, young man. "We checked with Agumon, he's perfectly fine…this is a different digimon, but he's threatening a relatively large village…well I'd say it was a city…" The cinnamon haired boy started to explain, "kind of like a burg or large town…"

"Ok, Koushiro, the digimon is attacking a pretty big town," Daisuke said rolling his brown eyes at the older boy. He scanned the faces in the room, "Where's Ken?" Daisuke asked immediately as he did a mental roll call.

"Ken already went ahead, evidently some of the new, British digi-destined have appeared in the village…err, town…thing" replied Koushiro, flustering over the population's proper terminology. He straightened his blue shirt and coughed. "They're part of the newer groups that have emerged with D-3s…you know the ones that were chosen after Noriko and the other Dark Spore children…"

"We need to find out where this Skull Greymon came from…" Iori said quietly. The little boy looked sternly at the floor.

"There'll be time for that later, right now we have to get you there to help Ken," Daisuke said with a nod. "Koushiro, can we use your computer?"

"I have the program started," Koushiro replied as he led the rest of the children back to his room.

They walked into the cinnamon haired boy's bedroom. A computer hummed quietly its screen displaying the digi-port program. Daisuke lifted a blue device from the hips of his pants. It chirped to life.

"Digi-port open!" Daisuke called. The computer glowed as the digital portal opened.

"Good luck!" called Koushiro as the light pulled the children into the computer monitor.

There was a knock on Koushiro's bedroom door. The cinnamon haired boy turned and opened it. A woman was standing in the doorway. She was wearing a conservative blue dress and white apron. Her brown hair was done in a gentle permanent.

"I was just wondering if your friends would like some…muffins…" the woman looked disappointed at the empty room. "Did they leave already?"

"Sorry, Mom, it was kind of an emergency," replied the cinnamon haired boy as he smiled at the woman, "Don't worry when they come back they'll be hungry…"

888

Over the last few months they'd gotten quite good at leaving the digital portals, meaning they didn't end up in a heap outside of a television. Daisuke and the others were quickly running, or flying in the case of Hawkmon and Patamon, down the street. The digimon of the city were running around in hysteria.

"This is a gridlock nightmare…" Daisuke shouted over the noise of the screaming digimon.

"We need to get the digimon out of here before Skull Greymon decides to take a shot at them," replied Iori as the little boy was jostled back and forth by crowds of Elecmon and Floramon. His long beige gown flowed with the movements, "Or they trample themselves…"

"We need to get off the streets first," Miyako shouted as the young lady, in her antique pilot getup bumped and was pushed toward an alley.

The others jostled and tried to direct the shoves they were getting toward Miyako. The group finally came back together in an alley. It was relatively clean, compared to human alleys and in the morning light the shadows had retreated to the most distal positions from the street. Garbage dumpsters were neatly placed next to the brick buildings that lined the alley, in fact if one were to go by the alley no one would think there was a steady flood of digimon shouting and screaming only a meter or so away in the streets.

"Where's Ken?" Daisuke asked impatiently as he glared at the torrent of digimon passing the alley entrance. Sometimes a small digimon, like the mousey Chuumon would be thrust into the alley, but the individual, after taking a few seconds to get a breath, would leap back into the fray.

"He said he'd be at the digi-port," Takeru said as he looked around.

"You don't think he…?" Iori gulped as he watched a Gekomon trip and get stomped on by a group of stony Gotsumon, before rolling out of the fray. The horn that was usually wrapped around the frog digimon's neck was dented and squashed. Its bruising, green skin was covered in dirt and dust. The digimon swept his webbed hands over his body sloughing off loose dust and then leapt back into the street.

"Oh no…he could be…" Miyako gasped as she held her hands up to her mouth.

"I can see him," Hikari called as she pointed up in the air at large, green insect hovering above the buildings and observing the streams of digimon.

It was like a humanoid wasp, with a green exoskeleton that covered its sinewy arms and legs as well as its toned torso. Its head was squashed sagittally with its large red eyes dominating its face and a pair of long, spiky antenna swept back behind its head. The bug flew overhead and a head appeared over the shoulder of the insect. Its clawed hands were covered with black gauntlets, which had a spike protruding from the back of the hand. A pale face, with long, deep lavender hair and blue eyes peered down at them.

"Ken!" shouted Daisuke, in his flame jacket, as he waved his hand up to the other boy.

"Sorry, I wasn't at the digi-port, but when the digimon started to stampede…" called the boy over the whirr of the insect's wings, "Stingmon and I have been trying to keep things stable…Skull Greymon is still a couple of kilometers from the city…"

"Where are the English digi-destined?" Miyako shouted.

"Taking up a position halfway between the city and Skull Greymon," replied Ken as he pointed off in their general direction.

The children's blood ran cold as they looked up. The shadow of the beast they were about to face was visible. Its massive bulk seemed to dwarf the trees around it.

"Let's get over there," Daisuke suggested as he looked at the others. "We have to be in a position to stop Skull Greymon…"

"I just hope we don't have to destroy him…" Miyako whispered as she watched the shadow flail savagely in the distance.

"I doubt Skull Greymon will listen to reason," replied the girl's partner, a red hawk with a Native American headband. His blue eyes were bright and clear on his white face. "They aren't the kind of blokes to sit down for tea, after all."

"And we can't afford to have him kill innocent digimon," Ken said loudly. "Stingmon and I are going to see how the British kids are doing, this would be the first time they ever faced a real foe…"

"I kind of wish the British kids hadn't come…" Hikari whispered as she stared after Ken.

"We need all the help we can get, though," Iori said as he watched Ken fly away with Stingmon. He looked down at Hikari his eyes slightly narrowed, his voice wavered in confusion. "Shouldn't we be glad we have more help, considering our last encounter with a Skull Greymon didn't go so well?"

"She's just afraid that they'll get in the way, and I agree. Their inexperience could be fatal against something like Skull Greymon…" The bipedal, white cat, walking at Hikari's side, explained. The feline's triangular ears were slightly drooped. "I mean we'll have our paws full just with Skull Greymon, we can't be babysitting, too…"

"Let's go already, the longer we talk the longer we leave Ken up there without backup," Daisuke said as he drew his D-3 up. "Are you ready Veemon?"

A two-legged, blue dragon with a tiny horn on its nose hopped forward with clenched fists. A golden V emblazoned the little dragonet's broad, thick forehead, "Ready, willing and able, Daisuke!"

Iori looked down at a golden armadillo that was standing at his side. The sand colored creature reflected in Iori's hazel eyes. His ruffled, brown ears perked up and his slightly beaked snout curled into a smile. The little boy's raspy voice escaped his throat as he asked the digimon the same. The armadillo nodded with a cheerful response.

"Then let's go, Armadillomon," whispered the boy as he held out his golden digivice.

Miyako looked at her hawk partner, "Are you ready, Hawkmon?"

"Indubitably, Miyako," nodded the hawk charmingly.

"Do you and Gatomon want to come with me and Patamon, Hikari?" Takeru asked the girl with tan hair.

Hikari looked up and nodded as she picked up her feline partner, Gatomon. The digivices released a light.

"Veemon digivolve to ExVeemon!" The little, blue dragon glowed and grew into a large blue dragon with wide, leathery wings. ExVeemon's arms hung close to the ground. Its spiked knuckles nearly scraped the pavement, this was due to the dragon's hunched posture. Its chest had an X tattooed on it. Daisuke climbed up on the dragon's back.

"Armadillomon digivolve to Ankylomon!" the armadillo grew into a large, spike-shelled, mace-tailed anklyosaur. The digimon's hard shell had a line of thick spikes running down its spine as well a large bumps and knobs on the shell's surface. Iori curled his fingers around the shell's grooves and invaginations and scrambled up, his shoes scuffing against the keratinized armor.

"Hawkmon digivolve to Aquilamon!" The small hawk grew into a large, red eagle with a huge pair of horns. The eagle stood on the ground its huge, curve talons digging into the cement. Miyako was quick to grasp onto the eagle's rusty-red feathers and climbed onto the large bird of prey.

"Patamon digivolve to Angemon!" The brown, bat-winged hamster glowed and turned into a tall, golden haired angel with six, bright, white wings. A helmet covered the angel's eyes. A golden staff was in the angel's left hand. Its left arm wrapped around Hikari and Takeru.

Angemon, Aquilamon and ExVeemon flew off over the street, effortlessly. Ankylomon pushed and nuzzled his way into the stream of digimon and continued to push and wedged against the motion of the digimon torrent, looking like a boulder in white water rapids. All the while the children eyed the massive outline of Skull Greymon raging in the distance.

888

"My 'e's a biggun innit 'e?" remarked a brown haired boy with freckles. His brown eyes watched the thrashings of the large, skeletal digimon across the meadow. His shirt was green with a pair of jeans.

"Yep, mate, that he is, that he is," replied another boy. His hair was red and his eyes were sharp emerald in color. A red coat was hung on his shoulders. "When do you think that boy, Ken's gonna be back?"

"He's coming, with his friends," said a girl as she pointed back. She had blonde hair and gentle brown eyes. She wore a gray jacket and a pair of blue jeans.

A green insect was whirring toward them. Behind the insect was a large, blue dragon, a red eagle and an angel. Behind them a large, shelled dinosaur was galloping across the ground.

The two boys looked at two digimon sitting next to them. The digimon with the freckled boy was a red Agumon, complete with flat, blunted nose and miniature tyrannosaur features. The digimon next to the red haired boy was a lavender tadpole, named Otamamon. The girl looked down and patted the head of a pinkish-purple mushroom with arms and legs, named Mushroomon.

"Wow, an angel," said the red haired boy, "That's pretty cool, huh, James?"

"I don't know, I think the dragon's cool myself, Harry," replied the freckled boy as he watched them approach.

"The eagle is kind of neat," said the girl quietly as she watched the large bird glide toward them.

"Mary's got a point, just think of how comfortable it has to be on the back of that big ol' bird," the red haired boy said.

The insect digimon landed next to the group of kids and the purpled haired boy on the wasp's back jumped down. The boy walked forward and crouched down next to the two boys. He sad something to the insect in Japanese and the emerald skinned bug took off and flew back toward the city.

"How are thing goings?" the boy said struggling with the verbage.

"Fine, he's just ripping up those trees over there," replied James as he lifted his arm pointing.

"I don't think he's going to attack…" Harry said as he looked at the large beast stomping over by the tree line.

"He will attack, as soon as he notice us," the Japanese boy said. The boy narrowed his eyes, "I apologize, I took Spanish…my English is not the best…"

"It's ok, mate, could be worse, we could be trying to communicate by using food names…" James said with a smile. Ken conceded with a slight nod. "What's your name?"

"My name is Ken," said the boy with a smile. He pointed back to the dragon, "My friend with the dragon, his name is Daisuke. The girl with the eagle is Miyako. The one with the angel is Takeru, and Hikari is with him. Iori is on the galloping digimon…"

"Right, don't expect me to remember;" said the girl with a blush, "I have such a horrible memory for names."

Ken only nodded with a smile.

"Uh oh…" The red tyrannosaur at the side of Harry pointed forward. Skull Greymon had stopped thrashing around. Its head was turned and it was looking at them.

"It looks like the big lug has finally noticed us," Stated the freckled boy. He gripped the D-3 at the hem of his pants.

"Wait…" Ken lifted his hand, "Skull Greymon is an Ultimate…we need to work together…"

"He's right," nodded the red haired boy.

The other children landed several yards back and Ken got up and ran toward them. The five other kids were put down by their digimon. There were two girls, one a lavender hair and glasses, in what seemed to be a 1920s pilots' uniform, complete with red culottes and a tan vest jacket; the other girl was dressed in light colored street clothes, her hair was tan and her eyes were brown. Three boys were huddled up around Ken. One was a child with a pair of goggles on; he wore a flame decorated jacket. Next to the flame decorated boy there was a younger child with neatly cut, short hair and hazel eyes, in a flowing beige shirt. Finally there was a taller blonde haired boy, who had rode with the angel; he was also wearing street clothes save for a floppy white hat that he wore on his head.

The group of children spoke in Japanese as the English kids turned. Skull Greymon was lurking in the distance, pacing in front of the, now, destroyed tree line. A pair of glowing, yellow eyes was glaring at them.

"I wonder what he's waiting for…" whispered James as he rubbed his head.

"I don't know but he looks impatient," whispered Harry as he looked at James.

"I hope we can stop him…" whispered Mary as her brown eyes followed the large fossil.

"Ok…" Ken knelt down next to the English kids. "We are not going to try and destroy Skull Greymon, only to get him away from the city…" The short Japanese boy with the tightly cut brown hair said something in Japanese and Ken nodded and looked at the English kids. "Can your digimon digivolve?"

"You mean become bigger?" asked Mary as she looked at Mushroomon. "Yeah, we've been to the Digital World once or twice and ran into a gang of Dark Lizamon…our digimon digivolved to save us…"

"Good," Ken nodded in relief, "that will make things simpler…what do your digimon digivolve into…"

"Agumon evolves into Boarmon," James said as he patted the red tyrannosaur's head.

"Otamamon turns into Yanmamon," said Harry as he looked down at the tadpole at his side.

"Mushroomon becomes Togemogumon," Mary replied as she smiled down at the fungus digimon.

"Yeah but how are we gonna get that big lug to run off?" asked James as he looked up at the outline of the large skeleton pace. "He looks tough…tougher than anything we've seen, not that we've seen much…"

"Skull Greymon isn't used to being knocked around, hopefully, if we get him knocked down he'll be surprised enough to runaway," Ken replied as he looked at the kids. "We are going for a two prong attack…Boarmon, Togemogumon and Ankylomon will charge Skull Greymon's legs…The rest of the flying digimon will attack his body. With any luck Skull Greymon will topple over."

The English children smiled and nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

"The let's do it," said the red Agumon, "We need to be getting home before your mum gets worried…it's already after nine o'clock PM…in London."

"Then let's get to it," nodded Harry as he lifted an aquamarine D-3.

Mary lifted an orange D-3. James lifted a purple D-3. The digimon glowed brightly and grew.

"Agumon digivolve to Boarmon!" The red tyrannosaur blazed and snorted as he turned into a flaming, razorback boar. Orange flames replaced the coarse hair that usually would've been on the boar's humped back. Small tusks jutted out between the pig's lips. Boarmon snorted as he looked around swishing his thin tasseled tail

"Otamamon digivolve to Yanmamon!" The lavender tadpole rose off the ground as large, veined wings grew of its back and its legs enlarged and split into six, spike clawed limbs. Its webbed tail flattened and extended into a long, serrated tail, much like that of a lobster's. Its head was small compared to the rest of its body, including its dome-backed carapace where the two pairs of insect wings protruded the hard, golden exoskeleton. The finished result was that of a gigantic, sandy-gold dragonfly the size of a locomotive engine. The wings purred as they lifted and rose at such a pace that they were nothing but a blur.

"Mushroomon digivolve to Togemogumon!" the fungus grew and its arms dropped down, turning into thick, trunk-like legs. Its hind legs grew and shifted back and became muscular, back legs. The face of the mushroom digimon pushed forward and became more like the face of a porcupine, with a more triangular shape. The digimon grunted as large, crystalline erupted out where the cap of the mushroom had been. There was a chuffing grunt as the last spike ripped upward.

"I guess we're ready…" Ken said with a little trepidation as he looked at the large skeleton stomping ahead. The pale skinned boy looked back at the other Japanese digi-destined, "I hope we're ready…"

888

Skull Greymon growled as he watched a V formation of flying digimon heading towards him. A rumbling roar shook his ribs and the exposed, orange heart swung. He lowered his head and curled his ivory phalanges into bony fists. His tail clattered as it swept back and forth.

"V Laser!" A blue dragon, with white wings, leading the V formation of flying, Champion digimon crossed his muscular arms over his tattooed chest. A golden beam fired from the black X shaped tattoo. The energy beam smacked Skull Greymon's head forcing the skeleton to shift its head slightly.

"Blast Rings!" A large, brick-red eagle opened its curved beak and lavender energy rings shot forward. Skull Greymon felt the rings smash into his sternum.

"Hand of Fate!" A white angel digimon with a blue sash swept around its muscular body clenched its fist and punched forward. A golden stream of holy radiance sliced the air. Skull Greymon roared in annoyance as the light sizzled across his clavicle.

"Thunder Ray!" a sandy, humpbacked dragonfly attacked with a zigzagging bolt of lightning struck Skull Greymon's ulna as the large bone therapod lifted his arm to shield against the angel's light. Ozone filled the mucous-less nostrils of the fossil as the lightning burned the air.

"Moon Shooter!" a large, humanoid wasp whirred its four wings and thrust its gauntleted right arm forward, a small port opened in the armor and tiny, white, glowing pins fired from the port. The pins 'tinked' and plinked off the hard white enamel on the curved ribs that covered the large fossil's pumping, red heart.

The five digimon broke formation as they came into arm reach. Skull Greymon roared and swept his claws at the digimon as they rose into the air out of reach. The snarling beast howled angrily as the digimon retook their formation. Skull Greymon growled as he narrowed his golden eyes. Suddenly a vibration ran up his creaking bones. The tyrannosaur's head dropped down to see three digimon charging towards him.

A golden shelled anklyosaur with a spiked tail mace was galloping ahead of the other two digimon. The digimon on the anklyosaur's left was a flaming hog, which was snorting and grunting as his thin, muscular legs nimbly propelled the porcine beast across the meadow. The digimon on the anklyosaur's right was a black and white porcupine, with a black body and white, ice quills.

"Megaton Press!" roared the anklyosaur as it lunged forward lowering its armored head and ramming Skull Greymon's tibia.

The fossil staggered backward as the hard shelled digimon pivoted and brought the spiked ball at the end of its tail heavily into the skeletal digimon's femur. Skull Greymon clanked and crackled as his bones took the stress. Skull Greymon's hands reached down and picked up the anklyosaur. The heavy beast struggled kicking its stubby legs and thrashing its body, swinging its tail around. Skull Greymon's claws fit into the grooves of the smaller, browner spikes that ran on either side of the larger, metallic spine spikes that trailed along the middle of the dinosaur's back. Skull Greymon snorted at the protesting digimon and tossed it aside with a flick of its wrist. The shelled digimon crashed to the ground, rolling and came to a stop on its back. The legs of the anklyosaur ran in the air as it tried to flip over.

"Bullet Attack!"

Skull Greymon barely stabilized himself when several sharp, hot strikes ran up and down his legs. Skull Greymon growled and lifted and crashed his jigsaw assembled feet down on the ground trying to crush a rapidly moving fiery beast. The flaming pig slipped between the skeleton's legs, but Skull Greymon swept his chain of tail vertebrae down slapping the hog off into the nearby forest. The hog squealed loudly as it crashed to the ground.

"Hail Machinegun!"

Icicles smashed into Skull Greymon's patella. The large virus digimon growled in even further annoyance as he glared down at the stoutly built porcupine digimon firing ice quills at him. The digimon's head was lowered and the rows of ice spikes around its neck were firing up at the legs and os coxae of Skull Greymon. Skull Greymon lifted his foot and swept it forward punting the quilled rodent next to the anklyosaur, who was still trying to right itself.

"Hand of Fate!" The deep, authoritative of the angel digimon voice reverberated.

The angel's strike hissed into the back of Skull Greymon's neck. The skeletal virus swung around and sliced his long fingers up trying to swat the winged humanoid, but the angel flapped its wings and rose out of reach. The smell of burnt bone wafted around Skull Greymon's nose as a soft gray smoke floated from where the angel's strike burnt the bone. The other flying digimon were quick to capitalize on Skull Greymon's frustration and started attacking from multiple vectors. Skull Greymon dropped to his hands and dug his claws into the root filled earth.

888

"This isn't working…" whispered Iori as he watched Skull Greymon toss aside the ground digimon. Iori squinted his hazel eyes. He watched Ankylomon struggling to his feet. Iori felt his stomach knot up tightly, as if someone had punched him in the gut.

"Then we have to DNA digivolve…" Daisuke shouted lifting a clenched fist above his head. His brown eyes leapt over to Ken, who met his look with his deep blue eyes.

"Wait guys, we have to use Gatomon's holy ring first," Hikari said as she looked down at the white cat sitting impatiently next to her.

The cat was quick to swing her tail around and put her green gloved paws around the golden ring that hung on her long, thin tail. She was sliding it along the white fur and nearing a set of fur tufts at the end of the tail when she heard her partner yelp. Gatomon turned her head and her blue eyes widened. A black shadow fired from the tree line. Gatomon yanked the ring and pulled it in front of her like a shield. The bolt of darkness ripped through her body like lightning, smoke rose off her fur. Her muscles tensed and jerked and pulled in all directions. She felt her body shrink down and a collar slip around her neck. The energy yanked at her body for several minutes afterward. Her mind fogged and she collapsed on the ground.

"Salamon!" Hikari scooped up the small, beige kitten-puppy. She looked around frantically. "What was that?"

"It came from over there," Miyako replied pointing a gloved hand toward the tree line. "Is that…"

"What? Is that what?" screamed Hikari loudly as she looked at the trees feverishly. Her arms hugged the small, limp digimon close to her body. "I don't see anything…"

"I don't know!" Miyako shouted in response as she looked back at where her digimon was fighting. "I only saw a shadow…"

"Salamon, are you ok?" yelped Hikari as she hugged the floppy eared, puppy-kitten against her white and pink shirt. Her reddish brown eyes teared up as she nuzzled against the digimon.

"I'm…fine…Kari…" whispered the puppy-kitten, "but you're squishing me…"

"Look at the holy ring around her neck," Takeru gasped as he ran up to Hikari, "It's completely black…"

"Then that means…" Ken turned quickly from the fight with Skull Greymon. "It's been tainted…which means…"

"No DNA digivolution…" Iori stated in his calm but steadily fuming tone. "This may have been a trap all along…"

"No DNA digivolution?" Daisuke and Miyako yelped in unison as they watched their partners tossed into the ground by Skull Greymon.

"This is really bad…" Miyako hissed as Aquilamon barely escaped the heel of Skull Greymon. "Our digimon are just getting tossed around."

"It won't be long before he's past them and heading toward the city," Iori continued as he watched Ankylomon smooshed under the skeletal foot of Skull Greymon.

They watched as the English children's digimon regrouped and tried to press the attack. Skull Greymon snorted and swept his arm down smacking the pig and the porcupine away, in the backstroke Skull Greymon smashed his hand into the soft underbelly of the golden dragonfly digimon.

Angemon fired a bolt of light into the back of Skull Greymon. The fossilized dinosaur roared in aggravation and spun around, reaching at the angel. The angel swept around the grabbing hands of Skull Greymon. The beast dropped to its hands and clawed the ground.

"Oh, no…" hissed Takeru as he watched steam rise from the spinal cord of the skeletal digimon, "not that…"

888

He didn't know why they were attacking him. He didn't understand. Anger raged in his head and he could hear a loud thumping in his head. His heart squeezed faster and harder. His world soon was filled with red pigment. The greens and blues and all the other colors of assorted meadow plants and flowers turned to crimson. He suddenly heard the voices in his head again, the small voices that had come with his painful change.

"_Skull Greymon…listen to our commands…Attack the city you see in the meadow, don't let anyone stop you…destroy the city at any expense…"_ instructed the little voices in his head.

He growled and glared at the city beyond, hundreds of digimon were moving; he could smell their collective fear pungently flowing on the air. A thrill filled his heart and he roared a piercing screeching roar. He was going to do it, but first he had to deal with the annoying gnats attacking him. His claws dug into the soil deeper. The vertebral clasps that held the fleshy, orange rocket on his back moved and released from the missile.

"Dark Shot!" The rocket shimmied from its moorings and hissed over Skull Greymon's head.

The missile spun and whirled in the air and then it exploded. The air condensed as the explosion's compression wave swept past. The sky darkened and then the flash point flared, followed by an intense burst of heat. The wind ripped and tore around Skull Greymon's skeletal structure, howling and whistling as it pushed through the gaps in the tibias and fibulas and the ulnas and radii. Skull Greymon turned his head and a warm feeling filled his chest when he saw the winged digimon lying on the ground. The dragonfly flared brightly and turned into a pink capped mushroom.

"You'll pay!" snorted the flaming pig as he charged forward. Skull Greymon snarled and whipped his tail around smacking the orange, porcine comet. The hog skidded across the ground and flared reverting to a small, red tyrannosaur.

"Hail Machinegun!" growled the icy porcupine. Ice shards bounced and clanked against the bones.

"Dark Shot!" roared Skull Greymon as another missile materialized on his back and shook free.

The rocket flew up and then dove toward the ground. The explosion ripped the earth apart, throwing rock and soil against his ribs and arms. Dirt crashed on and around Skull Greymon. Another feeling of pride rose up from his chest. He shook his head sharply throwing dirt off of his skull. His eyes glared down at the impotent Rookies lying around him like broken toys. Skull Greymon then took a deep breath, sucking in the pungent, fear filled perspiration of the city. His bony legs lifted and fell as he moved forward, the city growing in his vision. He snorted as he stepped over the humans in his way, they were no threat to him, not like the digimon, and since the digimon were incapacitated he ignored the vermin humans and continued to stalk toward the city.

888

"Veemon!" Daisuke shouted as he ran over the torn and smoldering ground. "Are you ok, Veemon?"

"Ugh…" The little dragon rose up on his hands and shook his head, flapping his bent ears back and forth, "I've felt better…"

"Hawkmon…" Miyako scooped up the small, hawk. The feather attached to the belt wrapped around his forehead was bent in the middle.

"Did we get that vicious brute?" murmured the hawk as he looked up at Miyako, his dirty face reflected in the lens of the girl's glasses.

"I'm afraid he got you," whispered the girl as she hugged the hawk tightly.

"Armadillomon," Iori ran forward to the scuffed up armadillo. The tan digimon shook his body and the dust and soot flew into the air.

"I'm sorry, Iori," whimpered the digimon as he shuffled out of the small crater he was embedded in. "He just was too tough for me…"

"It's ok, Armadillomon…" Iori said with a sad smile as he slipped his arms under the digimon's front legs and lifted him into a hug.

"Wormmon! WORMMON!" Ken screamed as he dropped to his knees, "WORMMON WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Don't worry, Ken," mumbled the humble voice of the green, caterpillar as he shook his worm-like body and tunneled out of the pile of dirt that had covered him.

"You're safe, I was so worried that…" Ken did finish his sentence and grabbed up the bug digimon, hugging the catepillar tightly.

"Patamon…" Takeru shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth.

"TK!" yelped the hamster digimon as he glided down on bat wings attached to his head. "It's ok, TK, I'm safe…"

The three English digi-destined children re-united with their digimon in a similar fashion, gently hugging their partners as they checked the digimon for injuries. They helped their partners back to the rest of the group.

"We're lucky; he decided not to eat us…" Daisuke said as he watched Skull Greymon charging toward the city.

"But the city…" Hikari whispered as she looked back, Salamon resting in her arms.

Skull Greymon was tearing at buildings on the outskirts of the city, tossing roofs and wall materials in the air. His tail smashed through three houses. The digi-destined winced as the houses collapsed under their own weight.

"What are we going to do now?" Miyako asked as she watched Skull Greymon smash through the city.

"If only we had the digimentals, I'd go up to him and give him the good ol' one two," Hawkmon snorted in irritation.

"We could at least draw him from the town," Armadillomon said with a nod.

"But we don't have the digimentals, they disappeared after we defeated MaloMyotismon," Takeru replied sharply as he glared at the large, skeletal digimon destroying the houses of innocent digimon.

"We can't give up…" Daisuke declared clenching his fists.

"We can't exactly run down there and throw rocks at him either, Daisuke," Iori grumbled as he watched Skull Greymon kick down a chapel.

"I'm just saying we can't just throw this all away, I mean, we've never given up before…" Daisuke tried to explain as he looked from one digi-destined to the next.

His eyes fell on the three British children. They were watching the city, terror in their eyes as Skull Greymon released a missile into the air and it exploded. Several blocks were flattened in the matter of seconds.

Daisuke turned to Ken, looking for some support from some one.

"Our digimon are in no condition to fight…" Ken whispered as he looked down at Wormmon. "I couldn't ask Wormmon to do more than he has…if we pushed them back to their Champion level they may not have enough energy to survive another blast from Skull Greymon."

"But those digimon in the city are depending on us, we can't just run home with our tails between our legs!" Daisuke snapped grabbing his head and pulling his hair slightly, "Come on guys don't just give up! We…"

Daisuke D-terminal chirped loudly. After he reached down to grasp the small messaging device from his pockets, the other Japanese digi-destined's devices went off. The children looked at each other and reached for their pockets.

"I don't believe it…" whispered Iori in his hushed, raspy voice.

"Our digimentals…" Miyako whispered as she looked down agape at the screen, as it displayed two egg-shaped icons.

The others responded in equal surprise. Hikari opened hers and gasped as a light flashed out and an object appeared at her feet. It was shaped like a white egg, save for two ears poking out the top, and a pair of clawed feet underneath it. Hikari furrowed her brows as the object flashed with a light and two wings sprouted out of the back of the digimental.

"It's changing…" whispered Hikari as she watched the wings splay.

Her discovery was trumped, though, when Ken opened his D-terminal. The pocket of his gray shirt blazed with a pink light. A small object lifted out of the boy's pocket and hovered, glowing with a soft pink light. The small crest hovered pulsing and then flashed and a blossom opened up around the crest and landed in the boy's hands. It was a pink flowery digimental.

"The…Digimental of Kindness…" whispered Wormmon whispered humbly as he looked up at the object in Ken's hands.

"Ok…what's goin' on 'ere," said one of the British digi-destined, the freckled boy.

"The digimentals are these objects that help digimon digivolve…" explained Ken half-consciously as he admired the Digimental of Kindness. "Everyone thought they'd been lost a year ago after the fight with MaloMyotismon…"

"Ah, so now what's going to happen?" asked the blonde haired British girl.

"Can you Armor Digivolve?" asked Daisuke to his shorter, dragon partner.

"Sure, Armor Digivolving is a piece of cake compared to Champion digivolving," the little dragon replied enthusiastically.

"Wait, let's think about this responsibly!" Iori shouted as he looked at Daisuke with a serious frown on his face. "The last time we went up against a Skull Greymon, we only had Armor digimon and it beat us easier than this one just did now…"

"Yeah, but that time we didn't have Raidramon, Shurimon and Submarimon," Daisuke pointed out giving a thumbs up to his partner, Veemon.

"I hate to say it, but Daisuke has a point," Miyako said as she looked down at Hawkmon, "Do you think you can handle it?"

"We'll never find out unless we try," replied the hawk as he looked up at the girl.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Daisuke impatiently asked as he lifted his digivice.

"I wonder if the change in the Digimental of Light has to do with that darkness that hit you, Salamon…" Hikari whispered as she put the plush puppy-kitten down next to the digimental. Hikari reached forward and lifted it easily. "Weights the same…but you're not Gatomon now…"

"Maybe that's why the digimental changed…" Salamon whispered as she strained. "Because I feel like a full fledged Rookie again…like all the experience I had as a Champion was sucked from me…"

"Everyone, we're going in…" Daisuke said as he pushed his D-3 forward.

Miyako, Iori, Takeru and Daisuke all nodded and data transferred from the D-terminal to the D-3. "Digi-armor Energize!"

"Veemon Armor Digivolve to…." The blue dragonet grew into a four-legged creature. Black armor covered his body and spikes jutted from his shoulders. His blue skin was only exposed at his legs and tail. His head was adorned with a bent, lightning bolt horn. Blue electricity snapped around his body as he leapt forward, "…Raidramon, The Storm of Friendship!"

"Hawkmon Armor digivolve to…" The hawk glowed with a green light and two large shurikens swept out of the light, attached to a pair of coiled arms. Another pair of shurikens was attached to green, vine-like arms. The digimon was in beige robes, a leafy cloak fell over the digimon's shoulders and its face was hidden by a beige cloth that covered its head. A large shuriken was attached to its back. "…Shurimon, Samurai of Sincerity…"

"Armadillomon Armor digivolve to…" The golden armadillo glowed with lavender light. His body changed drastically as his legs turned into fins and his tail turned into a rudder. His body turned into a gray and purple submersible. His snout extended into a jagged nose horn that pointed straight forward. The digimon had a cockpit and the glass that walled the cockpit slid open, "…Submarimon, the Reliable Guardian of the Sea."

"Patamon Armor digivolve to…" The hamster glowed and his bat wings expanded and grew golden feathers. The rest of the hamster grew and morphed into a golden armored, orange horse, with a yellow tail that swept silent, "…Pegasusmon, Flying Hope!"

Daisuke was already on the back of Raidramon, holding onto the lightning shaped, black spokes of the Armor digimon's armor. His fuzzy brown hair pressed down by the pair of goggles perched on his head.

Miyako was clinging onto the Samurai of Sincerity. Her gloved hands grasped the beige robes of the warrior digimon. Shurimon lifted his shuriken handed arms and started to spin the large, lavender throwing stars at the distal ends of the vine appendages, and like a helicopter he rose of the ground.

Iori slid into Submarimon's cockpit and the glass covering closed around the little boy as he gently pushed the joysticks in front forward. The submarine digimon rose off the ground with the sound of jet engines whining as it lifted.

Takeru lifted his leg up and got on Pegasusmon's armored back. The horse flapped its golden wings and rose into the air. The wind swept around the horse and its mane ruffled in the breeze.

"Well, Ken, are you going to do it?" Daisuke asked as he looked back at the purple haired boy.

"I don't know; I've never done this before…" Ken replied as he looked dumbfounded at the digimental in his hand.

Hikari and Salamon walked up next to him. The girl put her hand on Ken's shoulder, gently touching the gray fabric of the boy's uniform.

"We can do it together," Hikari said with a soothing, gentle tone that only she seemed able to produce. Hikari held out the augmented Digimental of Light and Ken held out his pink blossom that was the Digimental of Kindness.

"Digi-armor Energize!" shouted the two children as the digimentals turned into light and swarmed around the two remaining, Japanese Rookie digimon.

"Salamon Armor digivolve to…" The puppy-kitten sprouted white wings and grew into the white furred body of a snow colored lioness. Her head was like that of a female sphinx. The sphinx's tail was long and white and ended in tassels like Gatomon's. Jewel encrusted, gold bracelets covered her front paws and white and pink armor covered the sphinx's chest and shoulders, "…Nefertimon, Angel of Light!"

"Wormmon Armor digivolve to…." Ken watched in awe as the green digimon was engulfed by soft, pink light. As the light faded the creature that remained was a surprise to everyone. It was short, bipedal and cute. White fur covered most of its plush, Care Bear like body. A pink, rubbery helmet covered its head and two pink, heart-tipped antenna extended out of the head armor. It wore pink gloves on its hands, pink boots on its shoes and a pink ribbon was attached to its back, all made of the same rubbery armor as the helmet. Two, large, innocent eyes blinked at Ken's surprise-frozen face, his jaw hanging from the rest of his face, his blue eyes wider than saucers. "…Puttimon, The Heart of Kindness…"

"Woah, mate, ya got stiffed…" said the red haired British boy as he looked up at the exceedingly cute looking digimon that was hovering in the air.

"Don't let looks fool you," Puttimon sniped as he put his gloved hands on his hips. His voice was small and chipmunk-like; nothing like the low, mumbling and humble voice of Wormmon or the regal, warbling voice of Stingmon. "I am Puttimon and as Wormmon I use the Digimental of Kindness to fight cruelty and hatred. I use my Talon Arrow to slice through the darkness and my Heartner Beam not only destroys the enemy's defenses but leaves them feeling good about it, too!"

"You know, it's good that you all get a second bite at the apple and stuff, but what about us?" asked James as he looked at the rest of the digi-destined and then back down at Agumon. "We'd still like to help…"

"I…I…" Ken blinked and shook his head, but his eyes still rose up to where Puttimon was hovering. The cute, impish digimon smiled gently down at Ken. "I think it would be best if you go home…We can handle things."

"What? We get a 'hey thanks for the help now sod off…' for all our help?" growled Harry as he looked down at Otamamon, "Our digimon tried just has hard…"

"I think he's more worried about our safety than the glamour," replied Mary as the blonde haired girl put her hand on Harry's. "They may be right…"

Harry grumbled quietly but nodded stiffly. As Ken answered the other children's questioning looks by translating. The others looked down in shame, but Hikari looked up and said something.

"It's not that we don't appreciate your help, but…" Hikari looked down, blushing with a little shame, as Ken translated, "we are a little more experienced in these kinds of things…and really…"

"Kari's trying to say you'd get in the way!" shouted Miyako. The girl was still clasping Shurimon's robes. Ken blushed and decided to translate Miyako's statement in a more diplomatic manner.

"Guys we have to get going," Iori called as he looked over to the city. "If we don't get there soon, there won't be a city to save…"

"Right, let's get going," Daisuke shouted as he put his fist up and pointed forward, "Hi ho, Raidramon, away!"

The other digi-destined sighed and shook their head as the black armored, blue skinned dragon galloped away. Submarimon wasn't far behind hovering through the air, the jets whining from not being used to utilizing air as a propulsion medium. Shurimon whirred after the submarine its shuriken rotors humming through the air. Pegasusmon and Nefertimon glided off together, with Hikari and Takeru on their backs.

Ken looked up at Puttimon and then looked back at the three British children. "There's a digi-port about a kilometer to the south of here…"

"No, I want to help," snarled Harry loudly as he clenched his fists. "Why can't we help?"

"You can't, if you went in there you could get killed or worse…" Ken closed his eyes and looked down.

"Or worse?" Mary looked at Ken her soft brown eyes trying to find that tiny answer hidden in the boy's expression.

"Yeah what could be worse?" snorted Harry loudly.

"You wouldn't understand…you've never lost your partner…" Ken whispered. He looked up at the three British children. His eyes were a frigid blue and he his lips tightened. His already sharp edged face seemed even more stony and pale. "Just trust me when I say, if you value your partner's life; you won't go in there with them as they are, you'll go home, rest up and be happy you don't have to fight…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" fumed Harry loudly his red hair was wild, like his hazel eyes. A hand dropped on the redheads shoulder. Harry turned his head and blinked. The freckled boy, James shook his head.

"Let's just go home, we've done enough for today, plus our mums are going to be wondering where we are," said the young man firmly. "These guys can handle it…after all; they are _the_ Digi-Destined."

Harry huffed but consented and the three children turned and started to walk away. Ken breathed a deep sigh of relief and turned to Puttimon.

"Ken…they didn't need to fight…to help," whispered the impish digimon.

"I know but I don't want to risk them getting hurt…they are too new to this to suffer that kind of pain…" Ken replied as he looked down. His eyes rose and met Puttimon's. "I want you to make a promise…Promise me you will be careful…"

"Yes, Ken, I promise…" nodded the rubber armored digimon. It glided down and grasped Ken's hand, "Want a lift?"

"Huh?" Ken looked up but it was too late. The little digimon had already lifted Ken off the ground and was hovering towards the fight.

888

"There he is," announced Submarimon as he hovered onto the scene.

Buildings were torn to pieces. Only portions of walls stood crumbling in most places. In others, burning piles of rubble remained, smoking as the fires crackled. Submarimon dove in behind the large, skeletal digimon as it stomped on what had been a bakery and was now nothing but a pile of rock, brick and mortar.

"Let's get his attention and then retreat to where the others are…" Iori whispered as he looked up at the large beast mindlessly crushing another building.

His thumbs lifted to a pair of buttons on the top of the two joysticks he was handling. His thumbs pressed the trigger buttons. Submarimon jerked backward as two large air puffs fired from his gun ports and exploded into the sacrum of the large, living fossil. Skull Greymon's head jerked up and turned, glaring down at Submarimon.

"I don't know about you, but I think that's our cue to hightail it outta here, Iori," Submarimon said as the large bone beast lifted up a big chunk of house.

Iori gulped and quickly pulled back the joysticks, yanking Submarimon into reverse, just before the hunk of building Skull Greymon was holding crashed into the area where the submarine had been. Iori pressed the trigger again firing bolts of oxygen into the face of the beast as Submarimon retreated. One of the bolts exploded into one of Skull Greymon's eye sockets. The beast screeched in pain and fury and charged after Submarimon.

"Turn us around…turn us around…" yelped Submarimon as Skull Greymon grew larger in his field of vision.

Iori swung the joysticks around spinning Submarimon around in a three hundred and sixty degree swivel. The little boy then pressed forward on the joysticks putting as much weight behind him as he could. Iori could hear the whine of the jets screaming behind him, and the savage roars of Skull Greymon punch through the high pitched whine of Submarimon's engines.

"We're never going to make…" gulped Iori as he heard the stomps of the skeletal feet of Skull Greymon grow louder and louder.

"Don't give up…he's not got us yet," reassured Submarimon as he weaved in and out of the buildings that Skull Greymon had crushed and left crumbling.

"The stream is about three blocks from here…" Iori replied as he looked at a radar map of the area that was glowing between the joysticks. "If we can get there we'll be safe…"

"Uh oh…" grumbled Submarimon as the jets' whines started to subside.

"What?" Iori gulped as he noticed that the scenes of destruction around him started to slow. "Why are we slowing down…?"

"Sorry, Cody, my jets aren't really made for air…I think they're overheating…" the submarine apologized as he gliding slowed.

Skull Greymon's smashing footsteps rumbled around Iori. It was just like in that movie, Jurassic Park, except this time they wouldn't escape the T-Rex, or in the case the insane, undead, viral, fossil digimon.

"Golden Noose!" shouted a pair of voice. Iori instantly looked up and saw two winged digimon, a white sphinx and a golden armored, winged horse flying over head, carrying an energy rope between their feet.

"Iori get out so I can de-digivolve back to Armadillomon, then we can see if I can digivolve to Digmon," The submarine suggested as the cockpit hissed open.

The little boy hopped out and Submarimon glowed brightly and a beam of light flew into the hazel eyed child's D-terminal. Iori held up his D-3 and his D-terminal started transferring data to his digivice.

"Digi-armor Energize!" announced the boy, his beige, gown top flowing as the energy flew from his digivice to the armadillo that had replaced Submarimon.

"Armadillomon Armor digivolve to…" Armadillomon glowed brightly and grew. His body was still a sandy brown color, but this time it was a hard exoskeleton. He grew an extra pair of legs and his nose was now a drill. A pair of twiggy antenna reached out from his trapezoidal, armored head. His back carried a golden wing guard and underneath the guards small, insect wings twitched. His largest pair of arms ended in three drills. His legs were like a kangaroo's, but his feet were like a birds' with two toes pointing forward and one toe pointing back, "…Digmon, The Drill of Knowledge!"

Digmon wasted no time snatching up Iori and putting the small boy on his back. The drilling beetle then started hopping away as Iori watched the sphinx and the winged horse tie the golden energy ribbon around Skull Greymon. Soon the two winged digimon were gliding above him. Skull Greymon, though, would not be held by a thin thread of Hope and Light and soon he exploded out of the golden rope in more of a fury than he was before. The large skeletal dinosaur leapt forward smashing through leftover walls and missed buildings. His clawed hands picked up and threw boulders of cement at the retreating digimon. Iori didn't look back, but he could tell that Skull Greymon was in more violent mood as hunks of building exploded in front of them, forcing Digmon to skid or side jump around the rock as it bounced up from the ground. The sphinx and the winged horse were dodging back and forth between lobbed projectiles.

"How much farther, Digmon?" asked Iori quietly as he watched the sphinx narrowly miss a hunk of brick wall.

"Not far now, Iori," replied Digmon as the insect leapt over a pile of shattered metal siding. "In fact, Raidramon should be coming right about…"

"Thunder Blast!" A ball of blue electricity flashed under Digmon's feet, as he leapt over a black armored quadrupedal dragon.

Iori looked back and gulped as Skull Greymon shook off the surprise attack and roared angrily at the dragon, which was galloping away from the large skeleton. Digmon continued leapfrogging as the fight against the fossilized viral digimon escalated.

888

"Double Star!" A pair of purple-black shurikens flew through the air and smacked into the side of Skull Greymon's head.

A coiled limbed ninja leapt out from a pile of rubble and swept a kick into the nose of the skeletal beast and then sliced its shuriken hands into the beast's forehead. The beige robed digimon then leapt up doing an extended back flip and dropped down on Skull Greymon's vertebra. Skull Greymon shook and twisted trying to toss the shinobi off of his back, but the sharp shuriken feet and hands held fast in the vertebral joints, which is until the carp faced rocket on Skull Greymon's spine shuddered to life.

"Aww, nuts…" grumbled Shurimon as the orange missile lurched toward him.

The plant shinobi sprung his coiled legs pushing himself upward, while holding onto the spinal column of Skull Greymon, the teeth of his shuriken hands and feet digging between joints of the cervical vertebrae. The orange projectile rumbled between the extended limbs of the shinobi and flew into the air with a loud, hissing whistle.

Nefertimon and Pegasusmon dove out the way of the missile as it hissed between the two flying digimon. The jewels encrusted in the silver and gold gauntlets around Nefertimon's front paws shown with light. The golden armored, gauntlet of Pegasusmon glowed and the two winged digimons' feet touched and then swung around in a large circle, extending a glowing mesh net. They turned and flapped after the missile. They swept in front of the projectile and pulled back, snatching it in their golden net. The missile yanked angrily against the pull of the two Armored digimon. The net's golden ropes started to snap, and the golden twine whipped backward. The two winged digimon strained back, grunting as the rocket's nose lifted. Finally the last load baring rope snapped and the missile flew wildly, flipping around and twisting upward into the sky, exploding.

"Thunder Blast!" snarled Raidramon as a bolt of blue lightning snapped and crackled across Skull Greymon's chest.

The fingers of electricity clutched at the skeleton's exposed heart. Skull Greymon screeched as he staggered backward. Shurimon jammed the long sharp points of this hand shurikens into the crevices between Skull Greymon's vertebrae. Skull Greymon twisted and roared as the blades cut into his spine. The long, fingers of bone the extended up from the transverse processes of the skeletal digimon's spine swayed like tree branches, clinking and clanking as the beast shook, trying to remove the shinobi from his back.

"Star Shower!" Pegasusmon glided over head and spread his long, yellow, finely feather wings. The surface of the wing darkened and then sparkling streaks of light erupted out of the darkness as shooting stars smashed into Skull Greymon's broad, white snout.

"Rosetta Stone!" Nefertimon dove down and spread her perfectly white wings. An arc of pink light rose from behind the sphinx digimon's golden collar. A tablet flew out of the light and shattered into thousands of beige shards that exploded and ricocheted off of Skull Greymon's shoulders.

"Go down, you pile of bones!" snarled Raidramon as the bipedal dragon charged forward. He leapt opening his mouth, "Electric Bite!"

The sparking fangs of Raidramon clenched down on Skull Greymon's tibia. Raidramon curled his claws around the larger, foreleg bone. Skull Greymon screeched in aggravation as he kicked the leg that Raidramon was biting. Skull Greymon finally got fed up with Raidramon and smashed his bony palm on his shin, making a cacophony of clattering and hollow resonations. Skull Greymon then shook his hand throwing Raidramon to the ground. The dragon laid spread eagle on the ground, groaning numbly as Skull Greymon focused on his other attackers.

Shurimon shifted his weight trying to wedge his shurikens deeper between the skeleton's vertebrae. Skull Greymon snarled and started to back up. The large beast smashed backwards through several of the still standing walls of houses and businesses. Shurimon groaned as he body was plastered repeatedly against walls of concrete and mortar, of granite and marble. His grip loosened and Skull Greymon shook his body hard slinging Shurimon off his back, but the skeletal digimon wasn't done, for as Shurimon fell Skull Greymon swept his hard, calcium phosphate tail around, smacking Shurimon into another building. The Samurai of Sincerity slid down the wall's face and slumped on the ground, as Skull Greymon stomped away.

"Equus Beam!" A golden triangle on Pegasusmon's armored head glowed bright emerald before firing a pyramidal beam into Skull Greymon's sternum.

"Cat's Eye Beam!" The eyes on the snake adornment on Nefertimon's golden headdress flickered and fired two pink beams across Skull Greymon's collar bones.

Skull Greymon snarled in aggravation as the two beams struck his body. A rocket materialized on Skull Greymon's back. Its carp face was frowning angrily. The bone moorings of the missile released and the projectile roared to life. It shot toward Nefertimon and Pegasusmon. The two airborne digimon dove out of the rocket's way. It whistled by angrily leaving a thick smoky wake behind it.

"The kids!" shouted the two winged digimon as the missile arced toward the position they had left the kids, at the edge of the city.

888

"There in here," Hikari said as she pointed at the whimpering and whining pile of rubble. "Digmon we really need your help…"

"Don't worry, let ol' Digmon deal with this…" chuckled the sandy armored drill beetle as he hopped forward.

Daisuke and Takeru were at a different pile, pulling chunks of building free. Ken and Puttimon were clearing away another pile. Already a group of refugees had formed. Miyako was busy herding them out of the city.

Digmon stood back as a group of strange, sparrow like digimon hopped out. Their bodies were nothing but round puffs of brown feathers, with tiny puffy, lipped mouths and stick legs. Behind was a round older digimon with a cap on his mustached face. He was wearing a dirty apron and was dusting himself off.

"Who are you?" asked Iori quietly as he looked down from between the spriggy antenna of Digmon.

"I'm Papa Burgermon, and these are my children…" said the man as he counted the little, brown, sparrow digimon. "I run a restaurant here in the city…" The digimon sighed as he looked at the pile of rock that remained of his business, "Our house was above that restaurant, too…"

"I'm sorry…" whispered Iori as he looked away and down in shame.

"We lost everything last year too, when Chimeramon attacked…and when Black WarGreymon destroyed the last city we were in…" The old digimon started to cry. "It makes a digimon think it's not worth trying…"

"You can't give up," Hikari stated as she looked at the family.

"What would you digi-destined know, you and your digimon get to go home to the Human World if things get too ugly…" growled the old digimon. Hikari took a step back in surprise and lifted a pink gloved hand to her mouth. "We have to live here! There is nowhere to run…no place to hide; we're the ones that get caught in the crossfire!"

"Uh, guys…" Daisuke called out. The others looked at the darkly tanned, dirt smudged boy as he pointed upward, "I think we have a problem…"

The other children's eyes traced Daisuke's finger and followed his line of sight up to a large, orange missile, whistling towards them. Miyako shouted at the digimon to run. Digmon grabbed up Hikari and started to retreat. Daisuke, Takeru and Ken looked at each other.

"I've got it!" chirped Puttimon loudly as the little, white furred imp shot forward hovering under his own energy.

"Worm…Puttimon be careful!" Ken shouted loudly as he reached out after the rubbery armored digimon.

"Come on Ken, we have to get out of here…" Daisuke shouted as he grabbed Ken's gray sleeved arm and yanked dragging the lavender haired digi-destined behind him.

"Heartner Beam!" shouted Puttimon as the plush digimon pointed a single, pink gloved finger forward.

A ball of light formed at the fingertip and then a pink light shot forward, striking the oncoming missile. The missile shuddered as it struggled to continue and Puttimon grunted to hold the missile back. The scowling fishy face of the missile started to change. The lips started to curve upward and the fish faced rocket started to smile. One final push from Puttimon made the smiling missile explode, but not into smoke and flames but instead into pixie dust and flower petals.

"Good one Puttimon!" Ken shouted as he smiled, watching the flower petals swirl in the wind.

"I told you I could handle it!" Puttimon shouted back with a salute.

"Guys, I hate to cut this little bonding event short but…" Daisuke gulped as he pointed. Six, then seven, then ten orange missiles shot into the air.

"Puttimon!" Ken shouted.

"Heartner Beam!" yelped the white fairy as he pointed his finger at one missile, sending one pulse at the head missile. The missile barely shifted from its trajectory when Puttimon changed targets, "Heartner Beam!" Another pink pulse tapping another missile. "Heartner Beam! Heartner Beam! Heartner Beam!" yelped Puttimon as he struggled to juggle the missiles. "There's too many! I can't do this a…"

"Gold Rush!" Digmon leapt forward, with Iori on his back. Six spinning, drills rocketed through the air striking the orange Dark Shot missiles that Puttimon had hit. The orange warheads exploded as the drills sliced through them.

"That's right…" Iori said as he cupped his hands, "Puttimon, you have to hit the missiles, that'll break down their defenses and then Digmon can destroy them with his Gold Rush!"

"Roger!" shouted the little imp as he pointed forward lifting his thumb like the cock of a gun. "Heartner Beam, Heartner Beam!" Puttimon flicked his thumb down as he called out the attacks, firing bolts of pink kindness into the face of the koi faced missiles. Puttimon spun around and pointed his finger behind his back, "Heartner Beam! Heartner Beam!"

"Gold Rush!" drawled Digimon as his drills flew upward destroying another group of missiles.

"Heatner Beam!" shouted Puttimon as his beam fired from his fingertip and enveloped the last missile. The missile exploded into flower petals. "Yeeeehaw!" Puttimon cheered as he watched the petals twisted in the wind. The imp lifted his finger up to his little mouth and blew o+ver the top of it, "And that's why they call me, Quick draw Puttimon, Pardner…"

"You can celebrate later," shouted Ken loudly with an amused smile on his face, "We have to get these digimon away from here…"

A pair of limp figures weakly glided in the air toward the digi-destined. One was a winged horse, the other a sphinx. They were only a block away from the digi-destined when they dropped out of the sky like rocks.

"Nefertimon!" Hikari shouted as she ran past Digmon and down the ramshackle street.

"Pegasusmon!" Takeru was only two steps behind Hikari, his dirt smeared, green and yellow shirt bouncing and wafting as the boy ran.

Iori grabbed Daisuke hand pulling the older boy up on the back of Digmon and the sandy shelled insect started to hop after Takeru.

"HEY!" shouted Miyako loudly as she sprinted after Digmon, "Don't leave me alone!"

Hikari and Takeru were bent over two limp forms. Hikari was stroking the soft, burnt white fur of a large sphinx. The winged feline groaned softly, its expressionless metal face plate was charred and smudged. Its feathered wings were in tatters. The winged horse Takeru was standing next to was only in slightly better condition. The golden armor covering the orange furred equine was dented and cracked. Burns covered the horse's orange skin. The tiny orange ear-wings on its head were bent and torn. Pegasusmon's white mane was black with soot and dirt.

"Raidramon and Shurimon…need help…" grunted Pegasusmon as he lifted his head.

"We tried to hold him back, with our Golden Noose," whispered Nefertimon as she struggled to sit upright. The top of her headdress, that depicted neatly combed, golden hair, was cracked and scorched. "But he released so many missiles…"

"Where's Shurimon!" screamed Miyako loudly as she ran onto the scene.

"Still trying to keep Skull Greymon busy…" Daisuke growled as he watched the hulking form of Skull Greymon smashing buildings.

"This isn't working," rasped Iori as he glared upward. "We can't destroy him, and even if we could lead him away, what's to say he wouldn't just turn back around…"

"It's like he's being controlled, we can't get him to move away from his position, it's like he knows we're trying to lead him away…" Pegasusmon grunted as he rose to his hoofed feet.

"This is definitely not your Babamon's Skull Greymon," Nefertimon nodded in agreement, as she twitchingly spread her wings.

"We can't just…" Daisuke watched as a strike of lightning smashed into Skull Greymon's chest.

The large skeletal dinosaur didn't even flinch. A bony fist smashed into the street below. The hand swept up and a speck flew into the air. It grew larger; Daisuke could see the front and back legs of Raidramon twisting in the air. He could even make out the lightning bolt-like horn on the snout of the black armored dragon.

"Raidramon!" Daisuke shouted as he leapt off Digmon and ran down the street where the digimon crashed down and skid across the ground.

Daisuke skidded on to a stop and dropped to one knee pulling the head of the dragon up into his lap. The others watched as the dragon was bathed in blue light and energy zipped up from the armored digimon into the flame jacketed boy's D-terminal.

"We need to help Shurimon, Ken," Puttimon called as he flew forward. "Are you with me, Digmon?"

"I'm right with ya, pardner," nodded the beetle as Iori slid off the insect's back. Puttimon giggled and nodded flying toward the large skeleton in the distance.

"Stay here and protect the kids, Pegasusmon, Nefertimon," Digmon called as he hopped away. The two winged digimon nodded accepting the assignment.

"This is insane, we should retreat and think of something," Takeru grumbled, clenching his fists, "but we can't just leave Skull Greymon here…Grr…whoever planned this is going to pay!"

Daisuke stagger back toward them carrying Veemon in his arms. The child-sized dragon was limp in Daisuke's arms. Its large head with its broad forehead was nestled in the crook of Daisuke's right elbow. The short legs hung over Daisuke's left arm. The little, blue dragon's hung limply straight down, instead of with the normal little kink in it. Daisuke's head was lowered and they could hear his shuddering breath.

"Is he ok, Daisuke?" whispered Miyako as she lifted her hand.

"He wanted to keep going…he wanted me to armor digivolve him into Flamedramon…" Daisuke whispered as he looked down at the closed eyes of the digimon and across his face his eyes scanning over the tiny horn on the dragon's small nose. "He was pleading with me to do it, and then he sort of fell asleep…"

"What are we going to do?" Hikari asked as she watched the sky line.

Pink streaks sliced through the air bouncing off of Skull Greymon's bony body. A puff of dust shot into the air, followed by the sounds of a rocks being split apart, and Skull Greymon sunk down in a lopsided fashion. Skull Greymon howled angrily as he flailed his arms around.

Skull Greymon had his hands on something. He was swinging something around over his head. It took a few seconds to realize what the object was. Skull Greymon roared and released his toy. The form flew through the air, twisting and rolling through the air, long, thin legs twirling around the body in a green spiral, around flowing beige robes and a green, leafy cloak.

Miyako's mouth dropped; her eyes widened. She ran forward as the form crashed to the ground and bounced several meters before rolling to a stop. Miyako looked down at the digimon in terror. It was Shurimon; his legs and arms were sprung and were now nothing but green noodles attached to three pronged shurikens. His cloak and robes were torched and burned. A pair of golden eyes looked up unfocused.

"Shurimon…are you ok?" Miyako knelt down next to the digimon. "I should've never let you go, I should've made you stay…I didn't want you to fight him again…"

"I have to go back there…I can't…" Shurimon's eyes closed and a green light swarmed over him, condensing into a single beam and flew into Miyako's D-terminal. Miyako looked down at the small, bruised, red hawk in her arms. Its blue eyes flickered open, "I can still fight…Miyako...let me Armor digivolve to Halsemon…"

"NO!" Miyako screamed as she clutched onto the hawk tightly, "You'll get yourself killed, Hawkmon!" Miyako looked down and the hawk's eyes were closed. "Hawkmon? Hawkmon?"

"He's just like Veemon; he's out cold…" Takeru said as he inspected the bird digimon.

"Without being able to DNA digivolve we're can't hope to finish this…" Hikari said more to herself than to anyone else.

"If only there were someone we knew who could at least give Skull Greymon a run for his money…or knock him out or something," Ken said quietly as he furrowed his eyebrows watching as Skull Greymon smashed his hands together, after a series of pink energy bolts cut through the air to strike the digimon's face. Ken sighed in relief after he saw another wave of pink lasers strike Skull Greymon's back.

"That's it!" Iori said snapping his fingers. He grabbed his D-terminal and typed out a message. "Why didn't I think of it earlier…? Come on Koushiro...please be watching your email…"

"What are you doing?" Daisuke asked as he leaned over Iori's shoulder. The younger boy snapped his D-terminal shut.

"I'm getting us some help," returned Iori in frustration as he looked up at Daisuke, "It's rude to read over someone's shoulder!"

"Well, I was just trying…" Daisuke flustered. Iori only shook his head and sighed in aggravation.

"Who'd you message?" Takeru asked one of his eyebrows rising in suspicion.

"Koushiro; asking him to get Taichi," Iori smiled and nodded.

"I don't get it…" Miyako said as she knelt down and laid Hawkmon on the ground gently. She turned her head back to the boy. "Why Taichi?"

"Because, Azulongmon gave Agumon the power to warp digivolve, when he faced off against Black WarGreymon," Iori explained with a smile.

"But how's Taichi going to get here, he's still in the Human World?" Ken asked as he winced watching Skull Greymon swatting at a pink streak of light. "He can't open a digi-port…"

"I asked Izzy to call Noriko, she and the other Dark Spore children have D-3s and can open a digital port…" Iori replied triumphantly. "Hopefully, Taichi and WarGreymon will be here in a short while…all we have to do is hold Skull Greymon's attention for a little longer…"

"That may be easier said than done…" Nefertimon grumbled softly as she watched the little bursts of pink energy lanced ineffectually into Skull Greymon.

888

"Heartner Beam!" A pink flash filled Skull Greymon's eyes.

"Gold Rush!" Drills drove into Skull Greymon's bones, whining against the calcium rods.

Skull Greymon rocked backward, the combination of attacks smashing against his ribs. He snarled and smashed forward with his long hands. The pink armored imp and the tan armored beetle retreated away from his claws. He didn't understand why they were attacking, in the end it didn't matter; he was going to be victorious. He didn't even want to fight, but he couldn't help it, the rage he felt filled his head in an angered scream; all the while he was egged on by the combination of the small, mysterious voices commanding him to destroy the city, and the constant pelting from those little digimon. He roared loudly, releasing a howling thunder.

"Woah, dude, two words, breath mint," Chirped the pink and white, imp that had been firing the pink beams.

"I see some cavities, let me get those for you," the beetle replied lifting his drill enhanced hands.

Skull Greymon growled, responding by smashing his hands down. The drill beetle leapt backward. The tiny bear-cub like digimon flew forward the long, rubbery, heart-tipped antenna that trailed behind the digimon flexed forward, the heart-tips glowing.

"Talon Arrow!" chirped the digimon loudly as the antenna's tips clashed and clanked against his ribs.

Skull Greymon snorted and smashed his hand down, slapping away the pink, furry gnat. The gnat smashed into the ground, groaning. Skull Greymon chuffed and turned, sweeping his long bony tail behind him and started back toward the untouched part of the city.

"Rock Cracking!"

Skull Greymon felt the earth give way under his feet. His red vision glared down and found the sandy armored beetle digimon driving his drills into the ground. Skull Greymon sank half way up his shin in the sink hole that opened up under him. Skull Greymon snarled down at the beetle in front of him.

"Now it's not nice to leave the party before it's over," called the beetle as it lifted its drills.

Skull Greymon's vision reddened and he backhanded the insect from his sight. Skull Greymon pulled at his leg trying to free his foot from the hole it was stuck in. He roared in frustration as his foot wedged itself in the hole's entrance, unwilling to escape. Skull Greymon roared in anger and curled his bony fingers into a fist and punched down. The ground shook. Skull Greymon clenched his other hand into a fist and punched down. The pavement around Skull Greymon's foot cracked and snapped. Skull Greymon then yanked his foot tearing it from the ground, pulling and ripping electrical and communication cords up with him. The cords snapped and crackled with electricity. Water was filling the hole. Skull Greymon backed away as the sharp smell of gas fumes was sucked into his nose. A spark from one of the torn power cord erupted into a huge flame. The flame swept down and the water sizzled as the flames rushed over the muddy liquid's surface. Skull Greymon looked around as spires of flames shot up around him. He snarled and swept through the flames.

"Heartner Beam!" A stream of pink light sliced through the flames.

Skull Greymon growled quietly as he stomped at flames. It wasn't over and he didn't even know why it had begun.

888

Puttimon was shaken awake. His small black eyes opened to a hellfire. Flames were rising out of the ground. The smell of chemical fumes burned his nose and eyes. Suddenly a long, bony hand swept out of one of the towers of flame.

"Digmon!" shouted the little digimon as he jumped to his rubber booted feet. The ground was hot and vibrated as explosions pushed through the underground networks. The sounds of more gas eruptions thundered in the distance. He could just make out the screams of terror over the roar of the flames. Puttimon jumped in the air and hovered. "DIGMON!"

The imp dropped down next to his friend. The armored beetle was lying on a pile of crushed house. Digmon lifted his head.

"Did we get 'im?" he asked in a dry manner.

"No, he must have started the gas lines on fire…" Puttimon replied as he grasped one of Digmon's non-drill hands, to help the much larger digimon up to his feet. The beetle rolled and staggered forward on his clawed feet.

"Digmon! Puttimon, where…?" A heralding voice shouted from above. The screech of Skull Greymon drowned out the voice.

"Cat's Eye Beam!" pink lasers lanced in and out of the smoke. Skull Greymon growled angrily. The monstrous shadow of the beast rolled in the orange and red flames.

"Equus Beam!" emerald energy sliced the dark clouds.

"I thought they were supposed to be watching the kids," Puttimon stated as he saw a pair of winged forms gliding above the smoke. The imp looked at Digmon, "I'm going to go see what's up, are you ok?"

"I'll be fine, but we gotta find out what's going on," Digmon nodded as he watched the sky.

"Be right back, Digmon!" Puttimon called as he hovered upward. The smoke was noxious and it swirled around him like an inky, black fog. Puttimon coughed and hacked as the smoke pushed its way into his lungs. Finally, he pushed out of the acrid cloud.

"There!" shouted the loud commanding voice. It came from an armored, winged horse. Yellow armor covered the horse's shins, head and chest. "Puttimon, are you ok?"

"I'm fine…" called out the pink digimon as he looked down at the swirling smoke and flames.

"What of Digmon?" a voice behind Puttimon asked. The imp turned and saw a white furred sphinx with silver and gold, jewel encrusted armor around her chest and front paws, as well as a white face mask over her face.

"Digmon got slapped pretty hard but he's fine, where are the kids?" Puttimon looked at the two winged digimon, "Are they ok?"

"The children are safe, we moved them outside of town…" replied Pegasusmon called as he tipped side to side trying to hover on the turbulent air currents above the flames.

"Right now, we have to keep Skull Greymon busy for a little longer," Nefertimon called as the sphinx dropped down towards a huge shadow.

"Right," Puttimon nodded as he followed the white furred, winged feline.

888

Pegasusmon dove down curling and driving his armored body into the smoke. The smoke plumed the dark cloud swirling as the golden body penetrated it. Loud crackling and snapping popped in his ears. Orange and red flames licked up through the smoke. The horse narrowed his eyes as the heat stung at them. A clawed hand reached out of the orange glow below.

"Rosetta Stone!" A huge, glowing tablet smashed into the hand. Pegasusmon swept around catching sight of the tassels at the end of sphinx's tail, disappearing in the smoke.

Pegasusmon extended his wings and looked down at the shadow below him, "Star Shower!" The meteors of light disappeared in the glow underneath. A growl snarled up above the roar of the flames.

"Rosetta Stone!" Nefertimon dove underneath Pegasusmon firing several lines of mystical tablets after the stars.

Skull Greymon's voice snarled in anger and the shadow grew as two arms shot out of the flames. Nefertimon was snatched first. Pegasusmon dove down firing emerald bursts of Equus Beam against the metacarpals of the skeletal hand. The second hand swung around curling its fingers around Pegasusmon's midsection, crushing his yellow wings against his body. Pegasusmon kicked his legs trying to struggle free but hands dragged him down and Pegasusmon paled as he looked into a pair of blazing red eyes. The hand cinched down harder and the horse could feel the air in his lungs forced out of his lungs. He could hear Nefertimon groaning and looked up. The now sooty sphinx was limp in the claws of Skull Greymon. Pegasusmon grunted struggling with the last of his energy, but Skull Greymon curled his claws tighter around the midriff of the horse. He felt his eyes pressing against his eye sockets and then the sherbet orange glow of the flames went to black.

888

"Puttimon, what's going on?" Digmon asked as the pink armored digimon reappeared from the smoke.

"Not entirely sure but the kids are safe, we're supposed to keep Skull Greymon busy…for something," Puttimon replied as he touched down.

Digmon frowned slightly and then lifted his drills, "Might as well get on with it…"

"Are you sure…?" Puttimon looked up at the beetle digimon with soft eyes. The imp lifted a gloved hand, "If you're hurt…"

"Nah, it's just…something about this feels fishy…" replied the beetle as he hopped off.

"Just as long as it doesn't smell fishy," giggled Puttimon as he ran after sandy armored insect into the battle.

Puttimon and Digmon hadn't gotten far when two glowing motes of lights fell out of the sky. The two falling stars crashed at the Armored digimon's feet.

"Salamon…Patamon!" Digmon hopped forward and looked at the two digimon.

Salamon's grayish brown fur was burnt and dirty. Her floppy ears were singed and the still black holy ring around her neck was scuffed. Her small chest was slowly rising and falling. The other digimon, a hamster-like digimon with bat wings, was lying next to the puppy-kitten. Patamon's fur had black burn marks on it as well as places were it had been torn. The hamster's bat wings were crumpled against its chubby football like body.

"They are still alive…but it looks like they had quite the run in with Skull Greymon…" Puttimon whispered as he looked up at Digmon.

The ground rumbled. The sound of soft clattering followed the rumble. The flames swirled and rushed around a large shadow. A pair of golden eyes pierced the flames. A blunt, ivory snout, with a long pointed horn protruded through the fire, causing the flames to lick up the sides of the bony proboscis. The rest of the skull pushed through the orange-red wall. The skull turned down and its golden eyes fell on Digmon and Puttimon. A bony knee swept forward through the flames, and the rest of Skull Greymon emerged from the firewall.

Puttimon clenched his rubbery gauntleted fists. He was about to leap forward when Digmon pushed in front of him. Puttimon looked up at the back of tan wing guards of the drill beetle.

"You have to protect Salamon and Patamon…you have a better chance of running away…" Digmon said as his drills lifted. Digmon charged forward and leapt upward. His drills whined as they started to spin to life. "Rock Cracking!" The drills crashed into the joint between the patella and the femur of Skull Greymon.

"You idiot! We have to do this together!" Puttimon sniped as he ran forward.

It was too late though and Skull Greymon plucked Digmon from its knee. Digmon flailed his arms and fired the drills up at Skull Greymon's sternum. Skull Greymon swept the drills away with his free hand. The skeletal beast snarled and tossed the bug to the ground and then kicked Digmon.

Digmon rolled across the ground, glowing and the light flew from the armored insect. The insect digimon reverted to a yellow, armor-plated armadillo with ruffled ears. Puttimon leapt in front of the armadillo and held out his arms splaying his fingers. Skull Greymon growled angrily as the flames swirled around his bone body. The beast's empty, mouth opened and a blood-curdling screech blasted into Puttimon's face. The little pixie digimon only gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes.

"Don't you think you've done enough?" shouted the small white furred imp in his small, mousy voice. "You destroyed half a city and injured my friends! Don't you have any conscious? Don't you care? Are you really that dark hearted that you don't have any remorse?"

The skeletal digimon stopped snarling and took a step back.

"That's what I thought!" shouted Puttimon angrily, "All you bullies are the same, you beat up on everyone until someone points out how monstrous you are! So go on! Run away, get out of here! You mean, cowardly, pile of bones!"

Skull Greymon took several steps backward and started to turn, when suddenly it screeched out in pain. The horrible, piercing yowl forced Puttimon to put his hands on the pointed ears that stuck out from the sides of his heads under his antenna, even though the ears had rubber armor molded on them. The beast shook its head holding its skeletal hands up to the sides of its head. Its head shot back to Puttimon. The imp's body ran cold as he looked into the bloody red eyes glaring down at him. A rumbling, clattering growl shook the air.

"Dark Shot!" An orange missile on the skeleton's back shuddered to life.

Puttimon's eyes shrunk to the size of periods at the end of a sentence on his white face. His black little nose went from cold and wet to warm and dry as the missile shot straight up into the air, disappearing into the smoke. The imp looked back at the three unconscious Rookie digimon and then back up to Skull Greymon's towering form. The sound of the rocket whistling through the roaring flames and blowing wind.

"Maybe 'pile of bones' went a tad too far…" gulped Puttimon as the missile reappeared through the ceiling of smoke, trailing a portion of the acrid cloud with it as it freed itself from the black fog.

The missile's angry, carp face sneered at Puttimon, growing larger and more detailed as it shot towards him. Puttimon lifted his hand and pointed his finger forward, but no light would form at its tip. Puttimon blinked and strained to form an energy beam but the light wouldn't come. The missile's whistle grew louder. The rocket's roar diverged from the roar of the flames.

"Aw…nuts…" Puttimon whispered as the missile filled his vision. The imp slammed his eyes shut. He counted slowly to himself the seconds. _"One, one thousand; Two, one thousand; three, one thousand…f-four, one thousand…" _Puttimon flickered one eye open; curious as to where the large, life ending boom had gone. His head snapped up and opened both eyes. The missile and Skull Greymon were gone. "Huh…?"

Suddenly one of the walls of flame swished and swirled around and a digimon was thrust, backward into the clearing. It was some kind of humanoid dragon warrior. The warrior wore burnished gold armor. Its orange, skin was taut over strong muscles that tensed. Its head was covered in equally, shiny, gold armor and three, short horns arose from its head, two curled up at the sides of its head, and the other was a horn that pointed off its snouts. Its back had two large shields on it that acted like small airfoils. Its arms had large, golden gauntlets that ended in long, metallic claws. The digimon's shoulders had golden armor covering them. Two spikes rose up out of the shoulders' armor. The digimon turned and showed its front. Gray armored covered its torso; it was tied on by crimson rope. Its thighs were exposed showing, leathery orange flesh. The shins and feet were covered by red and gray armor. Its pelvis was protected by a gray, curved piece of metallic armor. An emerald eye looked down at where Puttimon was standing.

"Are you ok?" asked the dragon warrior as inclined his head.

Puttimon looked up in shock for a few seconds and then felt his head nod. "I-I'm fine WarGreymon…"

"Good, take care of the Rookies, the kids are south of town, I'll deal with…" WarGreymon was cut off as a huge, skeletal hand backhanded his entire body. The dragon warrior was tossed back but stopped himself, turning to kick the hand away. He dove, headlong, back into the firewall.

Puttimon turned and slowly lifted Armadillomon, straining and rocking side to side as he grunted. Puttimon then waddled over to where Salamon and Patamon were still lying. His antennae curled forward. The left antenna gently curled around Patamon and picked up the wing-eared hamster; the right carefully tied around Salamon, lifting the beige puppy-kitten. Puttimon grunted as he hopped several times before his body wobbled solidly in the air and he precariously hovered a few feet above the ground.

"You know; you guys really need to think about taking a diet," whimpered Puttimon as he weaved back and forth before rising above the flames.

888

"Look! It's Puttimon!" Veemon shouted as he pointed up with a clawed finger.

"He's safe…" Ken whispered as the lavender haired boy watched the imp weave across the sky.

The plush digimon landed and staggered forward, dropping Armadillomon. The armadillo bounced a couple of times before rolling to a stop. It shook its head, flopping the ruffled ears. Puttimon gently placed Patamon and Salamon on the ground and then sighed loudly as a light swept over his body and the energy shot into Ken's D-terminal.

Hikari and Takeru ran forward scooping up Salamon and Patamon respectively. Hikari was crying softly as she hugged the puppy-kitten close to her chest. Takeru held Patamon out and looked at the winged hamster. He then drew the digimon close and stroked its fur. Iori knelt down and hugged Armadillomon.

"I was worried when the gas lines lit…" whispered Iori quietly as he rubbed the knobby, scaled plating on the yellow armadillo's back. "I was afraid…"

"Aww, ya shouldn't have worried, Puttimon took care of us real good…" drawled the armadillo as he sunk into the beige sleeved arms of the little boy.

"Taichi, do you think WarGreymon can handle Skull Greymon alone? Taichi?" Veemon asked as he looked up at the tall boy standing back by Miyako.

The tall boy was wearing a blue shirt and tan pants. His brown hair was spiked in all directions. Flames reflected in his brown eyes. His dark, tanned face was a frowning mask. The muscles were tight and his eyes looked forward emotionlessly.

"Yo, Tai?" Daisuke shouted as the flame jacketed boy poked the older child.

"Huh?" The older shook his head and looked down into the face of the brown haired child who was poking him. "Uh, yeah WarGreymon should be able to handle it…"

"I could digivolve to Flamedramon," Veemon said as he looked up at the older boy, with his red eyes. "You know, backup…"

"No, you've done enough," Taichi replied absentmindedly. "How could this have happened?"

"We don't know, but it's definitely a catastrophe," piped up a red feathered hawk.

"With Gatomon's holy ring tainted we can't DNA digivolve, what if this happens again?" Miyako asked as she looked at the flames. "Can you imagine this happening…over and over again…we're powerless…"

"Stop!" Taichi growled as he looked at the pink haired girl. "We'll talk to Izzy and he'll give us a break down and we'll know exactly how to fix things. Don't worry; this is just a setback…"

"Yeah, Miyako…" Daisuke stuck his tongue out at the girl.

"Oh shut up, I didn't hear you being reasonable when Veemon was laid out!" The girl snorted as she crossed her arms.

"Both of you, stop it," Ken hissed under his breath. "Let's just be happy that this time we were lucky enough to have WarGreymon around to save our bacon," Ken's, dark, blue eyes glared as he watched the massive bulk of Skull Greymon being pushed through the air by a golden glimmer. The city's flames consuming everything they could touch. He looked down at Wormmon. The green, caterpillar like digimon smiled as best he could with his beaked mouth. "There are some questions I'd like answered. Like, where did this guy come from? Skull Greymon are pretty rare, and even if one wandered here, someone would've noticed him coming, far more than an hour or so before he reached the city. What hit Gatomon and corrupted her holy ring? Then there's the whole question of the digimentals returning…"

"Maybe something is happening," said a small voice behind the digi-destined. A young girl with flat, short, brown hair was standing next to a small, blue penguin digimon.

"Noriko," Iori looked up. The girl walked forward. Iori looked down and blushed, "Thanks for coming…" His hazel eyes rose and he looked at the others, "She may have a point…something could be starting. We should really investigate this further…but first we need to see if we can't get anything out of Skull Greymon. Names, any kind of info…"

"What about the city?" Miyako growled as she looked up at the flames. Another balloon of fire flew into the air, signifying another gas line rupture. "We can't just leave it like this…"

"Miyako, maybe I can do something as Halsemon…" Hawkmon offered the hawk looked around, "if I used a prolonged Tempest Wing I could draw water from the stream and drop it over the flames…"

"Are you sure you can do it?" Miyako looked down at brick red hawk.

"I've rested, and I won't be fighting…" Hawkmon nodded confidently.

Miyako narrowed her eyes, "O-ok…" Miyako lifted D-3 and data flew from a small device in her pocket to the red D-3. "Digi…digi-armor energize!"

"Hawkmon Armor digivolve to…" The little red hawk grew and turned into a gryphon. Thin, fur-like, brick red feathers covered his body. A wide, silver helmet covered his beaked face. The helmet extended laterally into silver wings. A pair of smaller, paw-like wings with tiny, black claws reached out from his front shoulders. His thighs were covered with the red fur-like feathers where as his shins were leathery like an eagles' or hawks', "…Halsemon, The Wings of Love!"

The gryphon leapt into the air taking flight, gliding toward the stream.

"Daisuke," Veemon looked up at his partner. The boy's brown eyes were watching as Hawkmon was covered in raspberry light. The blue dragon poked Daisuke, drawing the tan skinned boy to look down, "I could look for survivors; Flamedramon isn't affected by flames very much…"

"Right," Daisuke said clenching his fist. He lifted his D-3. "Digi-armor Energize!"

"Veemon Armor digivolve to…" The dragon was engulfed in red light. His slouched, relatively chubby body grew taller and slimmer. Flame decorated armor covered his chest and his waist. Flame decorated gauntlets covered his forearms and hands; three claws extended from each gauntlet. Similar red and orange, flame decorated gauntlets covered his feet. A red and orange, flame helmet covered his head and a large curved horn sliced upward. The rest of his body was exposed to the air, his lithe, blue skinned body with tensing muscles. A pair of German chocolate brown eyes glinted out of from his helmet, "…Flamedramon, The Fire of Courage!"

Flamedramon bounded down the hill the children were standing on and down into the city, disappearing into the flames. The children watched as Halsemon spun, as he reached the stream and wind wrapped around his body sucking water up from the small river. The created waterspout turned and flew towards the burning city. The water sprayed and hissed as it fell. Halsemon flew out of the waterspout as it crashed over the city dousing the flames. The armored gryphon came around and flew back toward the stream, spinning into new tornado. Flamedramon appeared on the edge of the city, as a small red and blue speck, it shifted and left several smaller specks and then jumped back into the flames

Iori looked back to the fight. WarGreymon had pushed Skull Greymon clear of the city, and the skeletal beast was again in the meadow that had surrounded the city, but was now a charred field. Skull Greymon was reeling back against the assault from the glimmering speck that was advancing on him. Iori shuddered as he watched the skeleton retreat. Something was up and he knew it.

888

"Not so tough when someone more powerful than you starts to fight back; are you?" growled WarGreymon as he slammed an armored foot into the chin of Skull Greymon. The emerald eyes of the Mega digimon narrowed as he glared into the black eye sockets and saw the crimson eyes filled with hatred glaring back at him, "It's like looking into an evil mirror…"

A bony hand swept forward, to swat at WarGreymon but the golden armored Mega was easily faster than the gigantic ivory beast and he dipped out of the way of the hand. The skeletal, Ultimate digimon roared angrily at WarGreymon. It swung its bulky, clattering body around, sweeping its bony tail up at the dragon warrior. WarGreymon caught the tail vertebrae between his gauntlets and heaved the beast over his head and flung it to the ground with a loud crash and several sharp clanks. One of the huge spikes that rose from the vertebral processes snapped loudly. Skull Greymon howled and rolled to its feet. The spike hung by a few bone fibers. Skull Greymon turned and growled at WarGreymon, and then the skeleton charged. WarGreymon snorted and rammed his fist into the skull of the bony digimon.

Skull Greymon's eyes widened and the red glow faded. WarGreymon glided back and lifted its claws, preparing for another attack. Skull Greymon stood there motionless, looking at WarGreymon, finally a timid, wavering voice spoke, "Destroy me….please…destroy me before the darkness takes over again…"

"Wah?" WarGreymon looked at the beast in front of him in shock.

Skull Greymon whimpered in front of him, dropping to its knees. "Hurry, I can feel it…coming back…destroy me…."

"I…" WarGreymon looked at the beast unable to move his body.

"Hurry….I can't hold irrrrrrrr," The red light consumed the golden eyes of the beast and it leapt forward, its claws drawn.

WarGreymon's claws lunged forward instinctively. He heard bone snap as his gauntlets crashed through the beast's sternum. Skull Greymon howled in pain and fell back. Crimson liquid splashed to the earth and WarGreymon looked at his gauntlet. The claws were bathed in red. WarGreymon looked up and the ribs of Skull Greymon hung loosely from their vertebrae; the sternum was smashed and the large, heart hanging in the thoracic cavity beyond had four huge holes punctured in it. The blood spurted out of the heart every time it beat.

Skull Greymon's eyes fell on WarGreymon, the red light was gone. "Thank you…" rumbled the beast as its bony frame evaporated into hundreds of millions of data particles.

WarGreymon hung in the air in silence for several minutes before he noticed a troop of kids and digimon rushing towards him. He looked down; he could see the shocked looks on a number of the children's faces.

"I…he…wanted me…and then…" WarGreymon slowly lowered to the ground and de-digivolved to an orange fleshed Agumon. "He lunged at me…I had no choice…"

"You did what you had to…" A tall, brown haired boy said as he walked forward and patted the digimon's head. "It's ok, Agumon…"

"He wanted me to destroy him…he was being controlled by a darkness…" Agumon said as he looked up at the boy. "Taichi…it was like he had two sides…one side didn't want to be Skull Greymon…he…"

"He didn't want to do this," A blonde haired boy said through gritted teeth. His fists were clenched tightly, until the knuckles were white. "Someone is using the Powers of Darkness to control digimon…"

"Yeah…" Taichi whispered, "Just like…"

"Devimon…" the boy finished. "Just like Devimon and his Dark Gears…"

"Oh, I thought you were going to say…" Miyako started but then silenced herself as she caught an angry glare from Daisuke. She blushed as she looked at Ken, whose head was looking to the blackened ground. "Well, it really doesn't need to be said…"

"I bet that foot tastes real good," Armadillomon chuckled as he looked up at Miyako.

"Not now, Armadillomon," whispered Iori as he caught the furious glare from behind Miyako's glasses. The little boy walked over to Agumon, "That Skull Greymon didn't say anything about whom or what the darkness was; did he? Or where it came from?"

"No, just that it was controlling him and he couldn't hold it…then he attacked and…" Agumon looked at his clawed hands.

"Don't worry, buddy," Taichi said as he hugged the little tyrannosaur. "We know you were just protecting yourself…"

"I know but…" Agumon frowned and shook his head, "let's just say this one was really close to home…on a couple of levels…"

Halsemon flew over the children's heads and landed on the burnt ground next to them. "I think I have the fire under control…Flamedramon says that city's fire department is moving in…"

"That's something good at least," Daisuke said with an enthusiastic smile.

"Nothing about this was good…" Miyako whispered as she looked over at Salamon and Patamon. The two were bruised and burnt and were still moving slowly. "And if someone made this Skull Greymon then…it means this kind of thing could happen over and over again, and we'll be powerless to stop it…"

"Then we'll just have to find out who's controlling the Powers of Darkness before they can use them again…" Ken said as he looked up. "Maybe we can talk them out of it, maybe we can reason with them. We can't just give up…think if you had given up when Taichi and Hikari found out that their digimon couldn't digivolve…I'd have been consumed by the Dark Spore and MaloMyotismon would've eventually controlled both worlds…"

"That was different…" Iori whispered quietly, "we had the digimentals to help us…and…"

"And we have the digimentals back," Daisuke said as he walked next to Ken, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm with Ken. The digimentals had to have come back to us for a reason. We need to stop sulking and start thinking…"

The others looked at Daisuke in shock. Miyako leaned over to Hikari and whispered in the brown haired girl's ear, "Did Daisuke just say, 'start thinking'?"

The girl giggled slightly and nodded her head. "I know…doesn't seem like something he'd say…"

"That's Daisuke, every time you have him figured out he throws a monkey wrench in your face," Takeru smiled and looked at the others. He ran his hands through his golden hair. "Daisuke's right…we need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and start figuring this out, before it happens again."

"We should talk to Koushiro," Iori said. He looked down at Armadillomon, who was nodding.

"But there's still a mess," Halsemon said as the gryphon looked up at the smoking city.

"Ok, here's the plan," Daisuke said as he knelt down. The others looked at him. Daisuke lifted his head and looked at them with his brown eyes. "Miyako and I can stick around here for a bit to make sure no more Skull Greymon or…anyone else tries to trash the city. The rest of you return to the Human World to eat and rest. While there you can talk to Koushiro and start investigating things…"

"Maybe we should ask Gennai," Iori said as he looked at the others. His eyes fell on the girl again, in a maroon dress, "Noriko…umm, are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm fine, it's been awhile since I've come to the Digital World," replied the girl quietly. She smiled and looked down at the blue bird next to her. "Actually I wanted to make sure you didn't need me…Penguinmon and I were planning to go back home, Mom doesn't know I left."

"Well, that's ok, I think we have things under control…sort of," Ken said in a gentle manner. The girl nodded and she and the penguin digimon started to leave.

"Nice kid, now that that spore's been neutralized," mused Miyako as she watched the girl leave.

"Anyways, I was saying that we should contact Gennai…" Iori said as he looked away from Noriko's retreating form.

"Good idea, at the very least Gennai can talk to one of the Harmonious Ones…" Ken said nodding.

"I'll email Mimi," Taichi said as he put his hands in his pockets, "She has a lot of friends in the Digital World. I bet Ogremon might know if something's up, if any of her friends knows of any sort of bad guys that are rising in power it would be Ogremon…"

"Right, so we'll stick around here for what, a couple of hours and then we'll meet you at my house," Miyako said as she walked over to Halsemon and swept her leg over the back of the gryphon. "Come on, Daisuke."

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay with you, Daisuke," Ken asked as he looked at the brown haired boy.

"Eh, I've faced MaloMyotismon alone, I think I might just have enough strength to survive spending a few hours alone with Miyako…" said the boy with a mischievous smile on his face. Ken only shook his head and smiled.

"Come on, Daisuke!" Miyako growled impatiently as she sat on Halsemon's back.

"Coming…Miyako…" Daisuke sighed as he walked toward the crimson feathered gryphon. He turned back to Ken, "Then again…MaloMyotismon was just ugly and evil…and I only faced off against him for about half an hour..."

"DAISUKE!" Miyako growled loudly.

"Ok…ok…jeesh, are you sitting on a pineapple or something…" grumbled Daisuke loudly as he walked over to Halsemon and climbed aboard the gryphon. The armored digimon took off and flew toward the city.

"Agumon, try and see if you can get any info on this," Taichi said as he started to leave with the others. The little, yellow-orange tyrannosaur nodded and ran off.

888

It was two in the afternoon now. Daisuke was sitting in Miyako's living room, on the floor around a center table. Ken, Miyako, Hikari, Takeru and Iori were also sitting around the table. They all had a soda in front of them and a small plate with half eaten snacks. The In Training digimon were lounging on the couch. Patamon and Salamon were sitting on the floor next to their partners.

"Well, no one came to blow up the city again, but I don't think it's wise if we show our face around there for a bit," Miyako sighed as she took a sip of soda. "Bad vibes…"

"Some digimon just don't know anything about gratitude," snorted Daisuke as he crossed his arms. His Digital World clothing was now replaced by his normal blue shirt and pair of shorts. His brown vest jacket was hung up on the coat rack.

"We did end up blowing up half their town…" Iori grunted under his breath.

"Guys we're not here to go over that again," Takeru said his blue eyes scanning the sad faced group of children.

"So what did Koushiro have to say?" Miyako said with a big smile.

"Well, we didn't find out much, but he did get a hold of Gennai," Hikari said as she pulled out a piece of paper. "According to Gennai there was a theft, about five days ago, in a museum in western regions of the Eastern Sector."

"You better tell them what was stolen," Iori's hazel eyes narrowed and he entwined his hands on the table.

"An ancient artifact, from before we first kids went," Takeru replied. His golden hair shone in the sunlight that fell from the window in the living room. "It is called, The Dark Digi-core…"

"How inventive," Miyako groaned as she looked at Takeru.

"Any suspects?" Daisuke asked as he tried to lean over and look at the paper Hikari held. The girl scooted away from the boy.

"Yeah…" Takeru put a piece of paper on the table. The paper had a sketch on it, "Some of the Bakemon guards caught a glimpse of the guy before he smoked the room…"

Miyako gasped and lifted the paper up and flipped it around. The image on the paper was that of a digimon that looked like a round head with arms and legs attached to it. The digimon wore some sort of soft cap or hood. There was a sword on its back, too. "I knew it; I knew I saw him on the edge of the trees! Poromon look!"

The little ball of pink feathers scowled and flew forward on tiny wings, "I knew he was a bad egg but I never thought he would stoop so low!"

"You guys know this digimon?" Iori and Takeru looked up at the pink haired girl and the dumpling of a bird.

"Yes, his name is Ninjamon…" replied the girl and the bird in unison. The two furrowed their eyebrows and shook their heads, "but he's not the type to do something like this…unless…"

"He is getting payment…" Miyako said, frowning. She looked at the bird that was flapping its tiny wings next to her. "Remember he put the Dark Spiral on ShogunGekomon so he could get a duel with Shurimon."

"Yeah, but who'd pay to steal something like a rusty, old artifact?" asked DemiVeemon as he crawled up to the edge of the couch cushion.

"Well, the Dark Digi-core is probably some sort of digivolution thing, like Azulongmon's digi-cores, which explains where Skull Greymon came from…" Ken surmised rubbing his chin. "So anyone who wants to make an evil army…would probably give their left arm for it…"

"Well, Mimi said she got a hold of some friends in the Digital World," Hikari said as she looked at another piece of paper, "No one's reported anything that would be considered a major moving of Darkness; she tried to find Ogremon, but she couldn't. That's not much of a surprise though, he's been a bit of a nomad ever since Leomon past away, during our fight with the Dark Masters."

"Then I guess tomorrow, after school, we should do some investigations in the Digital World," Takeru said as the lanky, blonde stood up. Patamon flapped his bat winged ears and rose, landing on the blonde's head. "I have to go home, Mom wanted to take me clothes shopping…"

"Yeah, Grandpa wants me to help him polish the kote at his dojo," Iori said getting up. He walked over and picked up one of the In Training digimon on the couch; it was a small dumpling with frilly ears. Iori's clothing had changed like Daisuke's back to street clothes, and he was now where a lavender sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. "He's probably wondering where I am…"

"I should go home and see if Tai has gotten any emails from Mimi and find out if she found Ogremon," said Hikari as she got up. She reached down and the beige puppy-kitten, Salamon, hopped into her arms. "I'll message you guys if Mimi comes up with anything."

"I should go, too," Ken said quietly, rising with the others. He straightened his gray clothing. He turned and caught the small, pinecone-dressed grub that was Minomon. "Mom was a little worried when I left this morning…I don't want her freaking out again…she's still a little protective."

"Yeah, I suppose I should go, too," Daisuke sighed as he stretched. He stood up and picked the blue beanie-baby dragon that was his partner, DemiVeemon. "See you guys tomorrow…"

"Bye!" shouted Miyako as she and Poromon looked at the sketch.

"I can't believe even he'd do something like this," Poromon whispered in Miyako's ear.

"Yeah, well there are some real jerks out there, Poromon," Miyako snorted as she folded the paper up and put it in her jeans' pocket. She tugged on her pink shirt and adjusted her glasses and got up and followed the others to the door. The others started to file out, "We'll see you tomorrow, and search out Ninjamon. Maybe we can get to him before he messes with someone else."

The others nodded and said goodbye and left. Miyako sighed and shut the door and looked back at Poromon.

"I hope he doesn't try anything stupid…" Poromon said quietly, "We may have to...finish our duel…"

"Yeah," Miyako shuddered quietly and turned back into the house and plopped on the couch.

888

"Ugh, next time, could yous try something more docile? Like Monzaemon or something…" growled a purple imp as he straightened a red ascot around his neck and pulled leaves out of his gloves. He glared around looking at the torn up trees and bushes they were surrounded by. "We're lucky he didn't blow us away with those digi-brats! It's a darn good thing they didn't come hiding in the bushes…or else they'd have found us…"

"Well, we got him under control finally!" yelped two voice simultaneously. The imp snorted as he looked at the figure before him. It had an orange-red cap on as well as orange-red shin guards and gloves. It was a fleshy ball on thin, mail-covered legs with thin arms. A sword was attached to its back. The figure held up a black sphere. "Though it was a little tricky…but in our Champion form he came under our control for the most part…we think most of Skull Greymon's uncooperative nature comes from its natural rebelliousness…oh well, we're sure with practice we'll get it…"

The figure glowed and split, into two, small, purple furred, black leather, winged demons. They held up scepters they held in their hands and the black ball disappeared. The lavender furred imp scowled at the two winged, Rookie demons, who had just been a single Champion digimon. The two white faced demons giggled loudly and looked at the imp.

"Yeah, sos what? Yous can fuse into a Champion digimon, big deal," growled the imp crossing his arms, "You're nothing apart…so nyah!" The imp stuck out his tongue.

"I think Impmon's jealous…" giggled the left digimon.

The two digimon clasped each other's hands, smiled and started to sing, "Impmon's jealous, Impmon's jealous, Impmon's jealoooouuussss!"

"I AM NOT!" screamed the imp loudly as he flashed his hands out splaying his fingers. Tiny fireballs erupted on the imp's fingertips, "and if yous value your faces not being baked, then I'd shut up if you were yous, Pal and Pul."

The two winged demons covered their mouths but continued to giggle.

"He's trying to act tough; it's so cute…" giggled Pal to Pul.

"I know…" Pul giggled his reply to Pal.

"THAT'S IT! I'M NOT CUTE!" shouted Impmon furiously as he flung his hand forward, releasing the fireballs, "I'm gettin' sick of puttin' up with you DemiMamonses! Bada Boom!" The twin demon's yelped and scattered flapping into the air. Impmon snarled and chased after them. "Come back here and take you comeuppance!"

888

"They've used it," said a young man sitting on a cliff, cross-legged. The man wore long beige robes with an earthen brown lining. The hood was raised over his head. The man was looking into the darkened, cloud filled sky.

The storm clouds in front of him undulated ferociously. A huge, sky-filling, translucent dragon was twisting in the sky. Chains were wrapped around its blue, serpentine body. Tiny, white wings were extended out of the plasma-like body. Four, red eyes looked out from either side of a lightning shaped horn that jutted out of a blue mask decorated with yellow streaks. A flowing white beard dropped from its jaw that matched the white hair that flowed around the dragon's head. Glowing spheres surrounded phantasmagoric dragon's long body.

"Yes, I had hoped that if we hid it in plain sight, no one would find it…" replied the booming voice of the Eastern dragon sadly.

"I've sent the digimentals back to the children," replied the young man. "It was as we had feared; they've neutralized the holy ring…whoever they are."

"It is good that you returned the digimentals to the children. I hope that they will not need them, but I fear I know better. I may just be getting cynical in my old age and the criminals do not know the full purpose of the Dark Digi-core," replied the dragon in its booming voice. "Keep me posted, Gennai. I want to know everything…since this is a problem of my own making…"

"Of course, Azulongmon," The man stood up and dusted off his robes. He bowed and started to walk away.

"Treat this with delicacy, all information about the genesis of the Dark Digi-core or its purpose is to be on a need to know basis," replied the dragon. The dragon sighed quietly as he retreated into the clouds. "I am afraid the other artifacts have been lost over the years we were sealed away by the Dark Masters, and neither I nor my brethren know of their whereabouts…"

"I will instigate a search for them," Gennai said without turning.

"Thank you, Gennai," The dragon retreated completely into the clouds; lightning and thunder accompanied the dragon's departure.

"I hope for all our sake the thief has no idea of the Dark Digi-core's true purpose," whispered Gennai as he descended the hill.


	2. The Claws of Fafnir

**I don't own digimon**

**The Claws of Fafnir **

**888**

"If what you say is true, then things may get a little busy for you, Tai," A young man with blonde hair tied his shoes. The young man tying his shoes looked up and smirked at a sighing brunette with a spiked hairdo. The spiky haired brunette had come over to talk to him and was now waiting for him to finish cleaning up after his rehearsal and had come over the studio that he was now in. "I mean if you and Agumon will have to start bailing Daisuke and the others out…all the time…and with exams this year…"

"Yeah I know," the brown haired, young man sighed rubbing the back of his head. "I suppose there is nothing for it. It's not like I can just say, sorry, can't come save you today, because Izzy says it's study time…"

"Heh, super tutor, cram master, Izzy…" the blonde looked up and smiled, "Did you get a look at that email from Izzy…"

"The one with his 'tentative' study group schedules," Taichi smirked as he raised his fingers making a quotation mark motion as he said tentative, "Tentative of course means, Izzy's at liberty to add more study times at will." The blonde nodded with a smile. Taichi drew his lips to one side of his mouth and then sighed, "Yeah, but I'm not entirely sure if I want to go to high school…I mean I have my soccer…"

"Taichi…" The blonde shook his head and picked up this guitar case. "Even I, as talented and popular with the studio as I am, know I can't keep this gig with the Teenage Wolves up forever…I mean I'll ride it as long as I can but I know I need to keep my options open. No matter how horrible a taskmaster Izzy is as a study coordinator, it's better than being a washed up bum in the subway."

"Well I suppose it could be worse; remember when Jyou was studying for his exams?" The brunette smirked and shook his head.

"Wasn't that when he got hives…on…?" The blonde smirked and shook his head as brunette broke out laughing. "Gah, I hope that these exams aren't nearly half as stressful as Jyou made them out to be…"

"Ah, don't worry, Matt, if you break out in hives all I'll have to do is call Jun…" Tai snickered, his hand gently covering his lips.

"Don't you finish that thought!" shouted the blonde in horror, as Tai started to laugh uncontrollably. The blonde snorted and turned around picking up a jacket, "Eh, she's all into Jyou's brother now anyway, which is perfectly fine with me…not to mention the fact Sora would kill you for doing that."

Tai sober instantly and coughed, sticking his hands into the green jacket he was wearing, "Yeah, Sora would have a bit of a conniption." Tai looked down and then smiled with only a thin veneer of politeness covering the discomfort underneath, "How are things going?"

"Eh, she's mad at me for something…" the blonde waved it off as he slipped into a black, leather jacket, sliding its sleeves over the sleeves of his white, button down shirt.

"Let me guess you bought her a hairclip, and she spazzed out…" Tai smirked as Matt walked toward him and the exit.

"No…actually, it was a ring…" Matt said as he passed.

Taichi's eyes bugged and his jaw dropped. He spun around and leapt next to Matt. "You bought her a ring, like an…"

"No, gah, I'm fifteen not twenty-five," The blonde replied with scrunched look. "It's just a present a nice present but a present; it had her birthstone in it. I got more money than I expected at that last gig we did…it wasn't anything that special really…"

"And she's mad at you…why?" Taichi blinked looking at the blonde's downward, hard gaze at the ground.

"Oh you know how she is; suspicious of every gift given to her…" Matt shook his head and came to a set of metal doors at the exit of the building that held the studio within it. He turned and pushed his back against the bar that hung across the door, thusly opening the door. "She said and I quote, 'this is far too expensive, you must think I really want a relationship where you just throw money at me to keep me happy…' Anyways, I got aggravated and said something to the effect of, 'if she'd just tell me what was wrong sometimes I'd stop having to get her gifts to make her happy.'"

"Ooo, bad move, muchacho," Tai said making a hissing sound whilst twisting his face into a picture of anguish and pain.

"Uh, duh," Matt said as he held the door for Taichi. The brunette passed. Matt slid out of the door, letting it close on its own. "Then we yelled a little more and she left in a huff."

"Have you tried talking to her since?" Tai asked as he walked down the stairs.

"Let's just say, we're having a bit of a cooling off period…" Matt whispered as he walked down the loading dock stairs. "It's been a week. Anyways, will I be seeing you at Izzy's on…is it Wednesday? I know it's the thirteenth anyways …"

"It's only September and he's already got us studying for exams…" Tai shook his head.

"Well I suspect he wants to do well, too; he's trying to get into high school for next year as well," Matt said as he walked.

"Never understood why he thinks he needs to skip grades, he's missing all the fun stuff," Taichi replied holding his hands behind his head as he walked, looking up at the soft, orange glow of the city's streetlights bouncing their radiance against the atmosphere, "I mean I went through all my grades one after another…and I'm just fine; savior of the world…moderately handsome and popular guy…"

"Just as long as you don't start some religion, I think we'll be safe," chuckled Matt quietly as they past people on the street.

"Isn't your dad going to pick you up tonight?" Tai asked, finally noticing that he was walking on the sidewalk and they were now a good twenty feet from the entrance of the alley that led to the loading docks of the studio complex.

"Nah, he's got work to do," the blond replied quietly. "I said it was ok…It's not like it's a million miles to our apartment."

"I guess," Taichi sighed quietly and looked down. "What if it's really bad this time? I mean Agumon can't shoulder everything by himself…we're really against the wall on this one."

"I don't think you have to worry, I mean if worse comes to worse the Harmonious Ones will probably step in…right?" Matt looked up at the brunette, but the usually confident brown eyes of the Courageous leader of the senior digi-destined were down turned and filled with worry. Matt took a few steps sideways, bringing him a few inches to the left of Taichi and nudged the boy with his elbow. "Right?"

"I suppose…" Tai said quietly in a halfhearted manner. "It's just this was so random, and out of nowhere…whoever's doing this really sucker punched us…"

"I wouldn't worry. Tomorrow, TK and the others will find this guy and we'll know what we're up against," Matt said confidently and started to jostled his friend. The brunette didn't really respond save being pushed around. Matt grumbled and looked at his friend, "Come on, buck up, you're no fun all mopey."

"Ok," Tai said with a quick smile. He stopped and looked around, "I guess I should be going home, Mimi is supposed to be looking for Ogremon, and I left things in Hikari's hands but," Taichi's lips curled into a more mischievous smile, "I don't want her seeing everything Mimi writes to me…it's personal…plus if she found out she'd never leave me be."

"Ok, well, I'll see you at school then, goodnight, Taichi," Matt said as he started to walk away, backwards.

"Goodnight, Yamato," Tai waved his hand at the blonde. He looked up and down the street and jogged across the street and made a turn around the corner.

888

Miyako sighed as she stared down at her plate. Her fork slowly pushed through a mound of noodles covered in red sauce. She grimaced and pulled her skirt down. The green lunch table she was sitting at was empty save her. Around her the commotion of other children and teachers eating and goofing around echoed in the large hall, but in her own dome of personal space everything was silent. She shifted her weight and self consciously slid her exposed legs around each other.

"Miyako…" the pink haired girl jerked her head up as the voice cut through her personal silence. She looked up and saw a young man standing in front of her holding a tray. He wore a green jacket and gray pants. Cinnamon red hair covered his head and gentle brown eyes looked down at her. "May I sit down?" Miyako nodded and watched as the young man stepped over the bench and placed his tray on the table before sitting. The young man looked at Miyako with concern, "Are you ok?"

"Sorry, Koushiro," Miyako sighed as she lifted her fork drawing up a coil of noodles from her plate. "It's just, I'm still getting used to the whole middle school thing." She reached down and yanked at her green skirt and growled loudly, "I hate these skirts…feels like I'm half naked…and I'm pretty sure that some of the guys have been ogling me…"

"I suspect you are quite attractive to several young men," The cinnamon haired boy said as he unfolded a napkin and gently laid it on his lap. He looked up at Miyako, "and that uniform does flatter you, on an aesthetic level…"

"Koushiro…" Miyako flustered, dropping her fork back onto her plate. The noodles splurted slightly as sauce was ejected from the plate and splattered slightly on the rest of Miyako's plate, including a small bowl of green gelatin.

The cinnamon haired boy blushed instantly, "I, well, I'm just saying that a rough consensus of young men in the school would believe that your uniform would be considerably flattering on a young woman such as you...that is…to say that many young men, not necessarily me, would think that it would be…not that I think you look horrible in the uniform it's just…" Koushiro rambled under his breath until he finally fell into a contemplative silence, looking into the spaghetti on his plate like it held some grand, miraculous secret of the universe.

"Uh…huh…" Miyako replied with an amused smile.

"I didn't come here to talk school fashion," Koushiro frowned shaking his head trying to push whatever thoughts he was contemplating on out of his head, "I was up rather late last night talking to Tentomon, he's been getting reports in from several places looking for this Ninjamon you and Poromon know. We've had several reports of Ninjamon from all over the Digital World, but most of these are licensed shinobi, and belong to a number of syndicated Ninjamon villages. We tried cross referencing the Ninjamon sightings with a rise in mischief and well, we had a few places that seem likely from both the sightings of Ninjamon and the kind of the crimes that were committed in those areas, which we matched against the crimes from a profile of the Ninjamon you encountered that Tentomon received from the Gekomon authorities in Little Edo. Evidently, he was mischievous before he ran into the Digimon Emperor…"

"And?" Miyako looked up sternly at the cinnamon haired boy.

"We have ten locales that are likely to be harboring our diminutive ninja," Koushiro reached into the pocket of his uniform's waistcoat and pulled out a piece of paper. "Of course he could be nowhere near those places…or hiding out in other places…"

"Thanks, Koushiro," Miyako said as she folded the paper up and stuck it in a small breast pocket. She looked down at the food and sighed quietly.

"Miyako, if I may ask, what is really troubling you?" Koushiro said quietly as he gathered a collection of sauce covered noodles on his fork and lifted them to his mouth. He chewed quietly and swallowed.

"I miss the others," Miyako replied quietly putting her elbows on the table and holding her head up. "Kari and TK, Iori and…" Miyako bit her lip, "even Daisuke. I mean, I have friends here but it's…like…"

"You're on a totally different level," Koushiro offered quietly.

The girl looked over her glasses at the cinnamon haired boy and nodded, "Ever since we saved the Digital World, well, after the fight with Daemon, it's like all the friends I have in my class are so childish."

"I completely comprehend your predicament, you can't imagine how hard it was for me to communicate with Taichi and Yamato when we first got to the Digital World," Koushiro said quietly lifting up a small carton of milk to his lips and sipping gently, "not that I believed I was superior, but rather it was like I was talking a different language to them. As of today, I still have occasional frustration with their antics, like now; Taichi is avoiding contact with me because he doesn't want to take our exam study schedule seriously."

"How do you cope, Koushiro?" Miyako asked looking up at the boy.

"It's work. One has to remember that sometimes, you have to get into the other person's shoes and see things as they see them and then try and find a way to communicate with them on a level that not only is accurate but is understandable to them," Koushiro explained as he ate. "You just have to be careful so that you don't sound like you are talking down to them. Condescension gets you nowhere at a relatively large velocity."

"Thanks, Koushiro," Miyako smiled and sat up. She grabbed her fork and twisted it in the noodles on her plate. She drew up a coil of pasta and lifted it up to her mouth. She watched Koushiro preparing to drink more of his milk, just as he was about to take a sip. A mischievous smile cut across Miyako's lips, "So, you think this uniform is really flattering on me? I didn't think you were the type to chase skirts, Koushiro. Especially those of younger girls…"

The cinnamon haired boy coughed into his milk, some of it exploding out of his nose. His eyes bulged as the milk searched for away out of his throat. Miyako started to giggle as the older young man spluttered and coughed trying to deal with the milk tickling his epiglottis.

888

"It's about time you got here, Miyako!" a goggle wearing boy growled as the pink haired girl walked into the computer lab.

"I had to walk across town to get here, Daisuke," Miyako snorted as she unzipped her bag and a tiny ball of feathers shot out of the book bag.

"Ugh! It was stuffy in there!" yelped the little bird as it flew around.

"I'm sorry, Poromon," Miyako sighed quietly as she watched the bird flutter about stretching its little wings.

"So how is it at middle school, Poromon?" asked a brown, bat winged hamster.

"It's horrible, it's not like here where you can sneak into the cafeteria and have snacks, there are people walking around all the time…" the bird grimaced as it landed next to a beige looking dumpling with rippled ears.

"No snacks!" a blue, plush digimon yelped, "that sounds like pure torture!"

"I don't know how you do it, Poromon," the dumpling next to the bird replied.

"Leave it to In Training digimon to think with their stomachs," sighed the beige, puppy-kitten sitting next to the hamster.

"How is middle school, Miyako?" a young brown haired girl asked. She was wearing a white T-shirt and beige pair of pants. A camera was hung around her neck.

"Eh, it's ok, Kari," Miyako replied half heartedly.

"Are you sure? You seem kind of glum," Iori said as the younger boy looked up from the computer he was at. He was playing computer solitaire. His hazel eyes glistened as the light from the screen refracted off his corneas.

"I'm fine," Miyako replied sternly as she walked over to a computer and brought the digi-port program on line. "It's just something you have to get used to…"

"Are you sure, Miyako?" A blonde boy standing behind Kari asked as he looked at the girl. "If you don't feel well…"

"I am fine," Miyako gritted through her teeth as she pulled the paper she'd received at lunch out of her pocket. "This is a list of areas that Ninjamon could possibly be at…well, likely to be at…"

"So then we should split up," Daisuke chirped moving behind Miyako and snatching the paper out of her hand.

"No, I've chosen the most likely place Ninjamon is," Miyako said as she looked at the others.

"Really?" the others blinked in surprise.

"Yeah, I did a lot of work between classes," Miyako replied as she pointed at a name on the top of the list, "Gekomon Meiji City, the one ruled by ShogunGekomon…it's obvious, that's where Ninjamon was hanging out before, and he'd easily be able to slip in and out without much fuss…"

"I guess it makes a little sense," Hikari said as she rubbed her chin.

"I'll get a hold of Ken; tell him we're going to ShogunGekomon's city," Daisuke said as he flipped his D-terminal open. He looked up and smiled, "with any luck we can get this over with this afternoon…"

"Is everyone ready?" Takeru said as he the blonde lifted his green D-3.

"I'm not, but you can go ahead of me," Miyako said as she backed away from the computer monitor. "I want to get out of this skirt…"

"O-ok…" Takeru said arching his eyebrow. He looked down at Iori; the gray-brown haired boy gave Miyako a suspicious look but said nothing. Takeru held his D-3 forward, "Digi-port open!"

The light flew from the computer monitor and swallowed up the children and their partner digimon, leaving Miyako and Poromon alone in the computer lab. Miyako walked forward and watched as the digi-port closed behind the other children. She lifted her pink D-3.

"Come on, Poromon…" Miyako called as she prepared the digi-port program.

"What are we doing, Miyako? Aren't we following the others?" Poromon asked as the girl held out her D-3.

"No, I sent them to the Gekomon's village to keep them from getting hurt," Miyako stated as she made some last minute adjustments. "We're going to where Ninjamon really is…I asked Biyomon to search him out while I was in school, she is pretty sure she found him in a small town a few kilometers to the south of the Gekomon village…"

"But won't the others be worried?" Poromon asked quickly as the bird flew next to Miyako.

"Don't worry about it, we can do this," Miyako snorted as she finally looked into the computer screen, "Digi-port open!"

"But Miyako!" yelped Poromon as he was swallowed by the light from the computer monitor.

The light faded and Poromon's energy increased and he evolved from a small ball of feathers to a red colored hawk. The bird stood next to Miyako and put his feathered hands on his hips.

"Come on, Hawkmon, Ninjamon's this way," Miyako called as she walked away.

"Miyako, this is insanity!" the hawk shouted running after the pink haired girl. The child's clothes had changed in transit. A brown vest jacket covered a white shirt and tan culottes covered her legs. The hawk took flight and glided next to the girl, "You do understand no one knows where we are? What if we're assaulted by some horrible fiend? Miyako, have you thought this through at all?"

"Look, I don't want those guys getting involved," Miyako stopped and looked at Hawkmon, "this is obviously some ploy Ninjamon is using to get a fight out of you, so we may as well give him what he wants and have him give us the digi-core."

"But, Miyako, what if he isn't the one…" Hawkmon asked sternly.

"He is, I know he is," Miyako snorted as she continued to walk down the hill toward a dirty looking, little town.

A small Shinto shrine gate rose above the rest of the town's skyline but even that looked degraded and broken down. Miyako followed a dusty trail down into the small town. Most of the buildings were made of wood of one sort or another. The sound of grunting and grumbling seemed to echo from the buildings. Hawkmon sighed as he looked up at the signs. Most of them read 'saloon' or 'bar'. Wind swirled in the empty streets.

"Get out of here ya little twerp!" a voice shouted over the grumbles of the taverns.

A pair of swinging doors a few open and a small spherical digimon dropped to the dusty streets. The digimon had no real body, just a head attached to long, thin arms and legs. It crawled to its feet and stood up dusting itself off. A dusty red mask covered its face and was tied behind its head. Light, nylon-like body armor covered the digimon's arms and legs; some of the armor was covered by red stockings and arm bands. The digimon looked up.

"You!" the digimon pointed at Miyako and Hawkmon. The digimon reached to the sword attached to his back. The blade clicked as he pulled it from the sheath. "You finally crawled out from that rock you were hiding under huh? Well, prepare to get thrashed!"

Miyako clenched her fists. "This ends now, Ninjamon, you're going to give us the Dark Digi-core."

The digimon blinked and smirked, "I don't know what you're human friend is talking about, Hawkmon, but she better act fast, and get you to turn into Shurimon or you're going to taste my blade!" Ninjamon then charged forward, his blade drawn.

"Miyako…" Hawkmon gulped as he watched the little ninja sprinting toward him.

"Fine, he wants to play games…" Miyako narrowed her eyes, "Digi-armor energize!"

"Hawkmon Armor digivolve to…." Hawkmon spread his wings waiting for the soft emerald fittings of the Digimental of Sincerity. Nothing happened. Hawkmon gulped and looked at Miyako. "Uh…Hawkmon Armor digivolve to…."

"Hawkmon watch out!" yelped Miyako as she grabbed the red feathered bird yanking him away from the sword of Ninjamon. The little shinobi skidded to a stop and leapt toward Miyako and Hawkmon.

"Feather Strike!" yelped Hawkmon loudly tossing the feather that adorned the leather strap that surrounded his forehead. Ninjamon shunted away from the spinning feathery blade and disappeared into the air.

"Hawkmon, what's going on?" Miyako yelped grabbing the bird up by its wing pits, "why aren't you Armor digivolving?"

"I don't know!" Hawkmon yelped back at Miyako.

"Well, you better do it soon, I'm impatient!" said Ninjamon as he appeared on the roof of a building. He splayed his fingers showing multiple shurikens in his hand.

"Digi-armor ENERGIZE!" shouted Miyako loudly.

"Hawkmon armor digivolve…." The hawk looked around as nothing happened and then decided to go for broke and added, "Please?"

"How disappointing!" snorted Ninjamon as he dove down and tossed his shurikens at Hawkmon.

The bird digimon haphazardly dodged the throwing stars as they whizzed past. Ninjamon smashed a fist into Hawkmon's beak sending the bird flying uncontrollably through the air and crashing to the ground. Ninjamon leapt over Miyako and dropped down saddling Hawkmon's chest. Miyako screamed as Ninjamon laid fist after fist into the little Rookie.

"Hawkmon!" shouted Miyako loudly as she grabbed her D-terminal and glared at the blank screed labeled digimentals. She then snatched her D-3 and glared at it as well, pressing the buttons on the machines face. "Damn you, work!"

The pink haired girl swore loudly as she continued to press buttons trying to get the Digimental of Sincerity to energize. Miyako looked up frantically where Ninjamon was pummeling her hawk friend. Miyako screamed and dove for the little shinobi. The red clothed digimon leapt away from Hawkmon as Miyako grabbed for him. The girl skidded on her knees and covered the hawk with her arms.

"Miyako…" Hawkmon whispered quietly. "What's going on?"

"I don't know…" Miyako breathed hugging the hawk close. "Of all the times for my D-3 to break down…" the girl scowled slightly as the device in her hand.

"That's not…what I meant…" Hawkmon whispered as he looked up at the soft brown eyes behind the lens of a pair of glasses. "Why are you so determined to do this alone…? You've been acting odd…"

"Where is the Dark Digicore, Ninjamon?" Miyako growled as she glared at the little, round ninja, ignoring Hawkmon completely. "You give it back we'll…fight you…"

"I don't know what you're talking about…" Ninjamon snorted as he glared at the girl and the hawk she held, "and you are in no position to barter with me!" He drew the sword attached to his back.

"Miyako…" Hawkmon struggled as he tried to free himself from the girl's arms. "Are you crazy? He's going to kill us, now let me free! I have to at least try to protect you!"

"We came for the digi-core, we know you took it," Miyako snarled quietly. "The Bakemon identified you; I saw you on the edge of the forest yesterday. Give it over, and we'll fight you…"

"Miyako what are you talking about?" Hawkmon fussed as he continued to attempt prying himself free. "With out the digimental I can't fight him as Shurimon! Why are you doing this?"

"Your girl has blown a fuse, Hawkmon," sneered the short shinobi as he looked aghast at the girl, gripping the red feathered hawk. "I don't have any digi-core, I haven't stolen it, and if I did, you can be sure that no Bakemon would've been able to identify me!"

"Don't deny it!" Miyako snorted loudly.

"Miyako, what's gotten into you?" Hawkmon hissed as he finally freed himself and dropped down to the ground on his feet.

"It's my fault…" Miyako replied quietly. The pink haired girl's eyes wavered behind her glasses. "We should've made sure this guy was put behind bars, at the very least. But we let him get away…and he's gone and stolen this weapon and destroyed an entire city…I'm getting it back!"

"Is this what everything is about?" Hawkmon yelped, "Dear child I think you need to reconsider the situation…"

"No, it's my fault!" Miyako growled loudly as she glared at Ninjamon. "And now we have him and I can't get the stupid digimentals to work…." Miyako dropped to her knees and hung her arms at her sides.

"That's enough of this," Ninjamon charged forward, his sword gleaming in the afternoon light. "This ends now!"

"Feather Strike!" Hawkmon shouted, throwing the plume on the top of his head at the ninja.

The red masked shinobi sliced through the feather and kept charging. A demented smile cut across the tan face of the spherical ninja as he sprinted. Hawkmon took a step backward as Ninjamon swept the metal weapon forward. Feathers flew into the air and Miyako screamed.

888

"Where the heck is she?" Daisuke grumbled as he and the other digi-destined sat across the street from digi-port, at an outside diner. "It's been…what an hour?"

"Fifteen minutes," Iori corrected as the little boy stood up. "Maybe one of us should go back and see what the matter is…"

"Someone may have walked in on her," Takeru said as the blonde leaned back in his white washed metal chair. Iori sat down again across the table from the blonde. Takeru looked at the others, "If we suddenly fly out of the computer…"

"So we have to sit here and wait?" Daisuke growled as he planted a fist on the table in front of him. The other children looked at the flame jacketed boy and shook their heads, "We could be letting this Ninjamon guy walk right through our fingers! She knows we're here somewhere; we should just start our investigation…"

"It's strange…" Ken said suddenly. The boy was standing at the edge of the dining area. "I never knew these digimon lived in this city…"

"What digimon?" Hikari looked up at the lavender haired boy.

Ken extended a gray sleeved arm and pointed at a group of digimon in kendo garb. They had long, white sleeved robes that were overly long on their arms. Their face was covered by a red mask and by the shadows of a blue hood. The mask had thin bars over across the face region and a pair of golden eyes shown out the shadow. The body of their robe was blue with a red, armor like cloth crossing their chest in a T shape. A lizard like tail swept behind them. A small sheath hung at their waists. Their clawed feet were exposed under their robes.

"Oh, those are the Kotemon," called out a lisping voice. A gangly, green frog-like digimon with a trumpet twisted around its neck walked up to their table, carrying a tray with water glasses on it, "About a month ago, ShogunGekomon hired these Kotemon to keep the peace while he was gone on vacation…"

"He went on vacation?" Daisuke snorted crossing his arms. "The guy barely works as it is…"

The frog glared at the tan, brown haired child. Takeru jabbed Daisuke in the side with his elbow and looked up at the frog with a smile, "I'm sorry my friend isn't always…oh, what's the word?"

"Tactful?" Iori offered. The blonde nodded at the younger boy wearing a loose, beige top.

"Well, anywaysh, they're here to make shure no one shtealsh the shogun'sh new treasure…" The frog nodded in approval.

"Treasure? What kind of treasure?" Iori leapt up and looked at the frog intently.

"Something from the easht though, a jewel encrushted gauntlet with these long clawsh," Gekomon lisped as he made a clawing motion with his free hand, balancing the tray with his other webbed paw. "Evidently one of our archeologishtsh found it near an old temple…"

"Have you heard of any other strangers in the area, maybe a Ninjamon?" Iori pulled a napkin out and reached into his pocket and withdrew a pen.

"Nah, not many people been coming, thish is our off seashon," the frog replied. "Though my brother did say he had a group of traveling shaleshmen from the wesht yeshterday, but they weren't ninja, nope an Impmon and a pair of twinsh, DemiMamon I think he said…he runs a hotel acrossh town."

"I've never heard of those digimon before," Iori said as he wrote down the names on the napkin.

The young, hazel eyed boy was about to continue his questioning when a loud, blaring siren howled through the air. The Kotemon on the other side of the street instantly looked up and ran, their overly long, white sleeves flapping in the air behind them.

"What's happening?" Hikari shouted over the blare of the siren.

Takeru pointed up. The dominating figure of the Edo-esque, digimon, city skyline complete with ceramic, ruffled roofing, was a huge palace that stood above all of the other buildings. A plume of smoke was rising off the palace's roof.

"We better check this out," Ken called as he looked down. Next to the tall, grey clad boy was a green, caterpillar digimon. "Wormmon…"

"Right," The worm nodded as Ken lifted his D-3. "Wormmon digivolve to Stingmon!"

The green grub metamorphosed to an eight foot tall, emerald bodied, vespa warrior. Long claws dropped down out of a pair of black gauntlets and a pair of veined wings flitted out of the humanoid insect's back. Stingmon picked up Ken and the large wings buzzed loudly as the wasp soldier lifted off the ground.

A few minutes later, a blue, dragon with leathery, white wings was following the wasp, a familiar flame jacketed child was holding onto the dragon's shoulders. An angel, carrying Takeru, flew after the dragon, and a white furred sphinx carrying Hikari followed the angel. On the ground a hopping, yellow armored beetle with drills augmenting his snout and upper hands was leaping after the group of flying digimon, the short child with the beige shirt was clasping onto the beetle's back.

The frog digimon stood watching the procession go, rubbing the back of his head. "I lose more coshtumersh that way…"

888

"Ha!" Impmon laughed as he snatched the pair of golden gauntlets long, clawed his red masked digimon accomplice. "Thanks, Pal and Pul…or should I just call you Ninjamon?"

"Give those back! They're not for you!" growled two voices from the single mouth of the round digimon standing next to the lavender furred imp.

"Ah, shush," Impmon chuckled as he slipped the golden gauntlets over his hands. The imp chuckled, curling one of the gauntlets into a golden fist. Even though he had only three fingers the five fingered gauntlets still seemed able to respond to his movements. His hazel eyes were held wide in adoration, "The Claws of Fafnir…amazing…I can feel their strength."

His eyes fell over the emeralds that were embedded at the joints between the hand and the fingers. Ruby's trailed over the positions where the metacarpals would've been. His eyes rose and a mischievous smile cut across his white furred face. Four digimon were flying toward him; three Champions and an Armored digimon. He could hear the commotion below. The Kotemon were rushing toward their position.

"We should get out of here, Impmon," grumbled the round digimon standing next to him. The ninja digimon looked up worriedly as the digimon drew closer.

"I got a better idea…" snorted the imp as he pointed on finger up. He strained and a huge golden flame rose up from the tip of the golden claw of the gauntlet. "Hehe, BADA BOOM!"

Impmon thrust the golden comet at the oncoming flying digimon. The winged creatures wheeled out of the way of the fire ball. Impmon laughed loudly and splayed his gauntleted fingers. His hands burst into yellow flames, the imp chuckled as he drew his hands together. A river of golden fire roared toward the airborne digimon. The Armored digimon, a white furred sphinx dove around the fire. Impmon swept his hands, tracing a line after the sphinx.

"Hand of Fate!" The wall behind Impmon exploded as a streak of light singed the air between his floppy, purple ears.

"Even if you can attack with a lot of power, if they hit you…" The Ninjamon scolded as it grabbed the red ascot around Impmon's neck and yanked the Rookie to the ground.

"I don't care…" growled the imp as he pointed forward and fired a small explosion of golden heat at the angel that had attacked him. The angel dove out of the flame's way easily.

"V Laser!" A blue dragon fired a stream of cross shaped energy at him.

Impmon was lifted and propelled upward. The imp struggled as the roof he'd been standing on exploded below him. He looked back at the red eyes behind the off red mask of his Ninjamon accomplice.

"Stop this insanity, if we lose the claws because of you, the Master will be most angry," the twin voices, coming out of Ninjamon's mouth, sniped. "It's the only plan he has to be freed…"

"I'm sick of running, I wanna fight!" shouted Impmon loudly, "I have the power!"

"But not the endurance," growled the Ninjamon as he landed on a higher roof above the one they were on. The ninja's eyes watched as the attacking aerial digimon swooped in and circled above them. "We're surrounded…we have one choice…"

"You're going to use that overgrown marble again…" snorted Impmon loudly as he crossed his arms, "this time be sure you can control it!"

"We at least have a practical plan," returned the Ninjamon quietly as he held out his hand. A large, black orb manifested itself in his palm. Ninjamon looked down below to the ground, "now, who would work….Gekomon…yuck…Otamamon, possible…nah. Ah, how about one of our own pursuers, the Kotemon? Dark Digi-core Activate!"

A black streak flashed down to the ground. A black cloud enveloped the palace courtyard. The darkness quickly cleared and the Ninjamon peered down at the ground. His sharp eyes could barely make out his creation from his dizzying height.

"Well?" snorted Impmon loudly.

"We're working on it…not quite enough oomf…" replied Ninjamon, he held out the digi-core again and a second blast of darkness flew down to the ground. The dark cloud of energy flew into the air. Shadow energy wafted off the forming digimon as it cut through the air. "Yes, that's it!"

"What's it?" Impmon growled impatiently.

The shadows peeled away revealing pink fur. Red tattoos were drawn on the digimon's legs and arms. The arms were the most dynamic part of the digimon; the upper arms had tiny tufts that looked like feathers; the lower arms extended into two large scythes. Blue hair twirled off of the pink digimon's fox-like head into a wild pony tail. An orange mustache curled off the digimon's face. Its clawed, wolf like paws hung in the air. The digimon hovered in the air, hanging by its own powerful energy.

Ninjamon lifted the Dark Digi-core to his mouth, "Kyuukimon, attack the human led digimon, allow us to escape. If you have to, destroy any digimon who attempts to follow…"

888

Miyako fell backward as Hawkmon slumped against her. She looked down at the bird digimon lying limp in her arms. Her eyes were glazed in shock. The bird's eyes were closed and its chest was covered in ruffled feathers. Ninjamon's sword made a metallic singing sound as the blade slid back into the sheath on the shinobi's back.

"I told him he should've Armor digivolved…" Ninjamon turned and leapt away, bounding up to the rooftops and disappearing in the distance.

"Hawkmon!" Miyako closed her eyes tightly and hugged the limp, red feathered bird, holding him close to her body for several minutes. "Hawkmon…I'm sorry…"

"Miyako…" whispered the hawk quietly, "your D-terminal is beeping…"

The girl's brown eyes shot open. She looked down. The hawk's clear blue eyes shone up and it was smiling, "Hawkmon!"

"Shh…" whispered the digimon quietly. "Ninjamon forgot the most important part of being a shinobi…the art of deception…"

"But…I saw…" Miyako hissed quietly.

"A few ruffled feathers fly in the air…" Hawkmon smiled quietly. The hawk frowned as a sharp beeping rang in his ear, "Now, will you look to see what the others sent you on your D-Terminal…"

Miyako's hands trembled; she felt anger rising up from her stomach, mostly at her partner. Her face grew hot from the blood coursing through her dilated blood vessels in her cheek. She was about to throw the bird digimon to the ground in frustration when she heard the soft tseeping of her D-terminal. The girl shook off her anger and grabbed the small, square device out of her pocket. The screen glowed up at her.

"Miyako where are you? We found Ninjamon, he's stolen some weapon with a friend named Impmon; they used the Dark Digimental again, created an Ultimate digimon out of one of the Kotemon that was guarding ShogunGekomon's palace. We need your help; we don't know how long we can hold the Ultimate off. Ninjamon and Impmon are getting away. Hurry, Miyako."

Hikari.

"What use are we? We can't even Armor digivolve," Miyako sighed as she slumped back down.

"But, Miyako, if they found the culprit, then that means our Ninjamon wasn't the fiend, which means none of this is our fault. You don't have to beat yourself up over this," Hawkmon looked up at Miyako. "Not that you should've in the first place."

"Yeah…but I got you hurt…" Miyako sighed looking down.

"Oh fuss and feathers, I've taken harder hits than what Ninjamon did," huffed Hawkmon loudly, "stop being so down. You're just being sad over your perceived loneliness, because you think you've lost your friends. Well, you haven't; I'm still here and you can get to know the older digi-destined, too, if you'd just take the chance. TK, Ken, Kari, Iori and Daisuke are with you, too, but they won't be for long if you don't get yourself out of this funk!"

Miyako looked down at her hawk friend. "You're right." Miyako clenched her fists. "I don't need to worry about losing my friends, they're always with me."

"Then let's get going!" Hawkmon called. He spread his wings and Miyako's D-3 glowed brightly, "Hawkmon digivolve to Aquilamon!"

Miyako climbed on the back of the red eagle and climbed up to the white feathers that started from the eagle's neck and reached forward across the bird's face. She looked between the two curled horns and watched as the roofs of buildings slid below her. The ground beneath her blurred into a brown, sandy wash as the eagle flapped its wings hard and picked up speed.

"ShogunGekomon's city isn't more than ten or twenty kilometers from here," shouted Miyako loudly.

"Then we should get there soon," Aquilamon grumbled as he swept his wings back pushing himself through the air.

888

"Spiking Strike!" Stingmon's spiky shoulder pads lifted and fell as a pink blade shot from his black gauntlet. The insect dove for the pink furred, scythed armed digimon who was hanging in the air in front of him. Stingmon swung the energy blade forward when the pink digimon disappeared into the thin air.

"Where'd he go?" Ken asked in Stingmon's left ear.

The wasp narrowed its red eyes and growled, "I don't know…he moved faster than I could see…"

"V Laser!" Stingmon heard the roar of ExVeemon behind him and twisted around to see the last visages of the pink Ultimate disappearing as ExVeemon's energy attack swept past, only a foot in front of Stingmon.

"Backstabber, eh," warbled Stingmon's regal voice as he pricked his antenna. "It may be wise to put the kids down, before one of us has an unexpected attack sending us crashing…"

"Stingmon's right," shouted Angemon's authoritative voice. "We may be able to take a crash from this height but the kids can't."

The four flying digimon made a beeline for the earth. They could see Digmon standing in the palace courtyard, his drills raised. Suddenly the drills rocketed toward them. Angemon and Nefertimon swept out of the way. ExVeemon and Stingmon weaved between the spinning missiles. The digimon dropped down and lowered the children on their backs to the ground.

"Be careful, he's an Ultimate," Ken called.

"You're going to have to work together to hold him off…" Daisuke said as his brown eyes swept across the group.

"He's fast, too," Takeru said as he looked to the sky, searching for the pink digimon. "So you have to keep on your toes."

"Just be careful and make sure no innocent digimon get hurt," Hikari said as she reached up and cupped Nefertimon's masked face in her hand.

"Of course, Kari," The sphinx nodded as she spread her white wings. "Let's go and show these guys we don't run from Ultimates."

The four digimon took the air, leaving the children with Digmon. The beetle sighed as he watched the digimon leave.

"I never get any of the fun," grumbled Digmon as he looked back to Iori, "Sometimes I wish I had wings…well, wings that would carry my weight…"

Iori narrowed his eyes and then he smiled, "We may still be of use, we can chase that Ninjamon and Impmon…Kyuukimon will be too busy with the others…now where did they go?"

"I think I saw them go that way," Ken said as pointed toward the north. "If you and Digmon hurry you might catch them before they leave the city…"

"I'll try and get a hold of Miyako," Hikari said as Iori and Digmon loped away down the street.

The others turned their eyes to the sky where they watched their digimon slowly, and cautious wheel in the air, searching for the attacker, Kyuukimon. They narrowed their eyes waiting for the lithe, furred fox to appear again. They watched intently as the clouds passed over their digimon, in fact they watched so intently they didn't see the pink streak that sliced through the air and it was only when they heard Digmon groaned that they turned their heads to the north and saw the toned, pink fox digimon appear in front of the yellow armored beetle. The kitsune was easily smaller than Digmon, but that didn't matter. The fox's single arm slice was so fast that it only registered when Digmon had fallen backward and de-digivolved to Armadillomon. The children gasped as the digimon disappeared again in thin air.

"Iori! Hikari and the other children ran forward, fearing that the small child had been crushed under his partner before it had de-digivolved to its Rookie form.

"I'm ok…" came a raspy voice. The boy was lying on the ground a few feet from where the rounded, armadillo digimon was lying, whimpering. "Armadillomon…"

The boy crawled on all fours to where the yellow armadillo was lying, on its back. The digimon turned its head. Its hazel eyes were strained as the digimon tried to hold the pain in.

"I never saw 'im coming…" whimpered the digimon as he rolled slowly to his stomach. "He's…faster than Skull Satamon was…"

Iori gulped as he looked in the sky. His hand shook slightly as he gently put it on Armadillomon's head.

"You're hand is shaking…" Daisuke said as he looked at the small boy's small fingers twitching as they slowly rubbed the armadillo's head.

"If he's faster than Skull Satamon…" Iori didn't even finish his sentence as the air was filled with a pained shout.

Stingmon's silhouette arched its back as a scythed armed shadow disappeared from behind the insect. The bug hung in the air for a few seconds before the vulpine shape of Kyuukimon phased into existence in front of Stingmon's backward bent body. A clawed foot smashed into Stingmon's stomach. The bug was propelled downward, spinning and twisting. Stingmon glowed brightly, and fell, like shooting star, out of the air and disappeared behind rooftops crashing into the street on the next block. Ken ran toward the perceived crash zone.

The other digimon scrambled to attack Kyuukimon, but the bewitching fox disappeared before the group of digimon could get a shot off. A pink streak sliced between ExVeemon and Angemon. The two Champions flew backward as the streak passed. A shadow appeared behind Angemon. Takeru started to shout but before his lips could shape the words the angel was tumbling head first towards the ground. Takeru winced and ran for the area where the angel was tumbling.

A cross shaped energy burst fired from ExVeemon's chest, but Kyuukimon's shadow had already disappeared. The energy beam sliced a white spire that rose up from a temple. The rock that the spire was built from exploded, tossing dust and pebbles everywhere.

"Be careful!" Daisuke yelped as he looked at the dent in the spire.

Nefertimon flew low dropping inches above the roofs of the city's houses. ExVeemon hung in the air, turning slowly. The air stiffened as the time slowly ticked away.

"COME ON! Where is he?" shouted Daisuke in uneasy frustration.

As asked, ExVeemon roared in pain. A wisp of Kyuukimon flitted from behind the dragon. ExVeemon fell forward, but flapped his wings keeping himself aloft barely. He hovered toward the ground, staggering as he touched the earth.

"Daisuke…" growled the winged dragon as he dropped to his knees, landing in front of his partner. His body was covered in golden light as he shrunk.

"Veemon!" Daisuke leapt to where the small, blue dragon that was huffing on the ground, with one hand holding it up on its knees and the other clutching its chest. "He's…fast…didn't even hear him…"

"Nefertimon…" Hikari murmured as she watched the sphinx glide slowly.

"We're just fish in a barrel…" Iori whispered as he watched for the inevitable.

"Nefertimon behind you!" shouted Hikari as Kyuukimon flickered into existence behind the white furred sphinx.

Nefertimon swung around just in time. Kyuukimon's bladed arm swept through air, missing the feline's body. A pair of pink lasers lanced forward, but Kyuukimon shunted to the left of the beams and they missed the vulpine creature. The fox beast disappeared again leaving Nefertimon hanging in the air alone.

"That was lucky," whispered Iori as he looked for any sign of Kyuukimon. The pink furred digimon was nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe we should…you know try to retreat…" whispered Hikari.

"We have to find the others," Iori replied; the younger boy was struggling to pick up Armadillomon.

"Rosetta Stone!" Nefertimon's called loudly and a blast of rock fired over the children's heads.

The kids dropped to the ground. Daisuke looked back and saw Kyuukimon leaping backward as the tablet shards of Nefertimon's Rosetta Stone smashed into the street. The fox digimon growled loudly and disappeared. Seconds later Nefertimon was being swiped at. The sphinx tried to avoid the fox's blade but Kyuukimon was far too fast and the armored digimon crashed to the earth, reverting to a beige, floppy eared puppy-kitten.

"Salamon!" Hikari got up and started to run toward the small digimon. She picked up the puppy-kitten and hugged it close. It was at that moment that Kyuukimon flickered into existence in front of the brown haired girl. One of its scythed arms was raised.

"Hikari!" Daisuke shouted, scrambling madly trying to get to the girl before the scythe.

"All pursuers shall be destroyed…" Kyuukimon's smooth, dark voice slipped through the air like silk between a tailor's fingers.

The scythe reached its zenith. Daisuke skid between of Kyuukimon and Hikari, spreading his arms out and made himself a human shield in front of the brunette girl.

"Daisuke," the brunette yelped as she looked at the back of the boy's flame decaled jacket.

Kyuukimon's blue eyes narrowed and the kitsune's arm started to drop. Kyuukimon lurched forward, an annoyed growl escaping its throat. Energy rings were burning into the fox demon's back, from a large, brick red, eagle. Daisuke's arms fell down in relief and he quickly turned and pushed Hikari away from Kyuukimon.

Kyuukimon swung around and disappeared into the air. The eagle swept down and a pink haired girl leapt down. Takeru and Ken came running from down the street, carrying their respective partners.

"Aquilamon, we have to stop that digimon," Miyako said with a sharp nod. The eagle bowed its head and took off.

"Where were you?" were the first words out of Daisuke's mouth as he glared at the spectacled girl. "We just got trashed by that thing…we could've used your help!"

"I was trying to find Ninjamon," Miyako replied soberly. Her eyes were stony but strong, "I thought he was in this town to the south of here, I didn't want you guys to get involved because I was sure Ninjamon would use you to get to Hawkmon and me."

"But Ninjamon was here," Iori replied as he looked into the brownish red eyes of the pink haired girl.

"It's not the same one, it's not the one I thought it was anyways," Miyako cheered, her smile growing, "and that's when I realized this whole Dark Digi-core thing wasn't my fault…"

"You're fault? Why would it be your fault?" Hikari said with a blank stare.

"Because when we first met with Ninjamon we let him go, Shurimon and I should've gotten him locked up," Miyako replied with a wave of her hand.

"But you had to let that Ninjamon go so you could stop ShogunGekomon when the Dark Spiral was put on him…" Iori replied with a shake of his head, "I don't understand where this is all going?"

"We met up with our Ninjamon in a town to the south, but I couldn't get any of my digimentals or my D-3 to work," Miyako said in a breath. "I thought I was going to lose Hawkmon, I already thought I'd lost you guys…but that was before Kyuukimon, I thought I'd lost your friendship when I went to middle school…"

"But that's silly," Hikari replied putting her hand on Miyako's shoulder.

"I realized that, and that's when Hawkmon could digivolve, and we came here…" Miyako replied quickly.

"So you beat Ninjamon?" Daisuke asked with a critical look on his tanned face.

"No, Hawkmon faked his death to get Ninjamon to leave…" Miyako said with a little groan. "Either way I got my D-3 to work…"

"You're going to need it…" Takeru said as the blonde slowed to a stop. Ken was right next to him, carrying his green, caterpillar partner.

"Kyuukimon is unbelievably fast and nimble…" Ken sighed as he turned to look in the sky. Aquilamon was making large kettling circles in the air. "I don't think Aquilamon is going to make much difference…"

"Jeesh, talk about confidence," snorted Miyako loudly as he turned to look at the two boys.

"He defeated all of us in less than ten minutes, Miyako," Iori replied as he tried to hold up a sleeping Armadillomon. "Aquilamon is one digimon…and it's a Champion against an extremely powerful and fast Ultimate."

"Well, we can't leave Kyuukimon here…it might attack innocent digimon," Miyako replied as she looked back at Iori. Her eyes scanned the other children as they looked half ready to quit, "Are you guys quitting already? What about you Daisuke, Ken, Takeru, didn't you say to stop sulking and start figuring out how to continue fighting? I can't believe how one day has changed you guys, now you're ready to run away."

"It's not that…" Hikari whispered as she looked down at the digimon lying in her arms, "we just don't want Aquilamon to get hurt…"

"And you think I do?" Miyako retorted loudly. "I care for Aquilamon and he cares for me, but we know that we just can't let these guys walk over us, we can't let the Powers of Darkness push us around and scare us…or we will lose our friends and loved ones, and we'll be truly lonely…"

The other digi-destined looked at Miyako. Their eyes were uncertain and they looked down at the ground, shuffling their feet.

"But we don't have the power…" whispered Ken quietly.

"We don't need power," Miyako retorted as she lifted her D-3 and showed it to the others, "We have an unbreakable strength! We are strong enough to beat this. Don't you see? We are strong, we are truly strong!"

The D-3 started to burn with a bright pair of lights. Two images rippled in front of the red digivice. One was a round, green seed, resting on a lavender shuriken. A tear drop was engraved on the face of the seed. The other was an egg-shaped object with two, wide, upward curving, axe-like blades on either side of the body of the object. A heart was carved on the body of the egg-shaped object.

"The digimentals…but what…are they doing out side the D-terminal…" Miyako whispered as she looked at the two images hovering in front of her. An intense power seemed to rippling off of them, almost matching the power she'd felt when they had encountered the Golden Digimental. Waves of power throbbed through Miyako's body as the digimentals pulsed. The energy hummed in the air. Suddenly a loud groan cut through the humming power. Miyako's eyes instantly shot up and watched as Aquilamon was cut across the chest by Kyuukimon's scythes. Her eyes widened and she looked at the others whose eyes were filled with dread as the eagle dropped backward. Miyako's eyes hardened and she clenched her fists. "I won't let you guys just give up…AQUILAMON, DON'T GIVE UP!"

The digimental flashed and turned into motes of light. The digimental resting on the shuriken turned into a green light; the digimental with the wide antler projection was turned into a raspberry colored ball of light. The two spheres shot through the sky as a green and pink light. The two lights twisted around each other like the double helix of a DNA molecule. Aquilamon's body fell right in front of the lights and the paired motes of light struck the eagle's body, covering it with a twisting compliment of red and green.

"Aquilamon Armor Synthesis Digivolve to…" The light swept around the eagle and it shrunk down. The shadow of its new form appeared in the light. It was human like. The light flashed off of the digimon as he rose from the light. Red, feathered leggings covered its hawk legs, complete with talons and yellow, ribbed legs. A brick red, feathered tail swept up behind the man. A metal belt was wrapped around the digimon's narrow waist. Its tone, muscular, white stomach, rippled with taut abdominal muscles. The chest was covered with a metal armor that covered the defined pectoral muscles. The chest armor was attached to a pair of cupped, silver shoulder pads. The arms that extended from the shoulders were muscular and white; the forearms had feathered tufts on their lateral sides. The hands had clawed fingers that were clenched into strong fists. Atop of the toned torso of the digimon was a human like head. The eyes were covered by a metallic visor and a pair of white ears jutted up off the top of the digimon's head which was covered with brick red hair. The voice was a composition of the husky voice of Shurimon and the bass, powerful voice of Halsemon, mixed with the low growl of Aquilamon, "…Silphymon, Warrior of Love and Sincerity…"

The digi-destined looked at Miyako. The pink haired girl was frozen. Silphymon hovered in the air, the light around him showing off the cut of his musculature. A slow smile cracked across the girl's face and then suddenly Miyako thrust a fist in the air.

"YES! I KNEW WE COULD IT!" Miyako cheered. The other children drooped their heads. Beads of embarrassment sliding off their temples in the form of glistening sweat droplets. "Let's show these guys we're not afraid!"

Silphymon nodded and took up a defensive stance. The air was rigid again as the group waited for Kyuukimon to reappear. They didn't have to wait long. The pink fury zipped out of nowhere and swept its scythed arms down. The children winced, expecting the worse, only Miyako cheered. The others looked up and saw that Silphymon had the scythe-armed fox demon by the elbows. Kyuukimon's eyes widened in shock, as it tried to free itself from Silphymon.

"All pursuers must be destroyed!" growled Kyuukimon loudly as it landed a kick on Silphymon's stomach. The Warrior of Love and Sincerity released his captive and the pink furred fox disappeared in the air.

Silphymon glanced around looking for any sign of the demon beast. Suddenly the creature appeared behind the cyborg digimon. Miyako gulped as the scythes crossed and tore Silphymon into four parts. The others who had been cheering with Miyako dropped their hands and their voices became silenced. The portions of Silphymon started to drop away from the scythes of Kyuukimon. Miyako's hands quivered as they lifted up to her lips, trying to stop a scream that was choked up in her throat.

The parts then spontaneously combusted, exploding into smoke and leaves. Kyuukimon jerked back in surprise as the smoke swept around the fox demon. As the kitsune looked around for the source of the smoke, a white bodied man appeared behind it. The man's muscular arms were held out and two spinning, pink, energy discs were humming at the ends of his clawed hands.

Kyuukimon spun around. Silphymon smirked, "My turn…Double Star!"

The spinning energy discs sliced through the air, whirring angrily toward the beast. Kyuukimon retreated quickly as the blades cut through his personal airspace. The pink shurikens curved their trajectory and flew back toward the scythe armed fox. Kyuukimon growled, spinning around and smashing his scythes' blades against the shurikens. The energy blades exploded tossing Kyuukimon back. The fox twisted and twirled and as he straightened he disappeared into the thin air once more.

"You don't think I can see you?" Silphymon shouted as he too vibrated and disappeared in a flurry of fading shadows.

The next thing the kids knew Silphymon and Kyuukimon reappeared trading fast paced kicks. The two digimon grunted slightly as they kicked off each other and disappeared once more with a burst of speed. Miyako started to punch the air and call out, cheering as she watched the flashes of movement crisscross the sky. Thunder sometimes would crack when the two speeding Ultimates would exceed the sound barrier. This would cause the children to cover their ears as the ground and buildings around them rumbled.

Kyuukimon appeared once more, hovering in the air. The fox held out its long, thin, scythe-like arms. Its smooth voice rang out over the city skyline, "Blade Twister!"

The fox demon started to spin, like a top. It's out held blade arms cut the air causing a red glow to emanate from the growing, pink tornado that had formed around the kitsune digimon. The top then swept downward, twisting and turning toward the digi-destined. The children started to slowly back up and then ran as the tornado smashed onto the ground and started ripping through buildings. Miyako looked back as she pumped her arms and legs and saw Silphymon flash into existence. Spinning shurikens were in his hands and the cyborg snorted and flung the throwing stars into the tornado. The bladed top shook and shimmied as the shurikens sliced up and around the winding, pink winds that Kyuukimon was twisting into existence with in the cyclone. One of the shurikens pierced the winds. The top swept to one side as its winds became lopsided.

The tornado started to dissipate. The howling pink winds turned into twisting wisps of magically controlled air as Kyuukimon hovered in the air, one of its scythed arms pressed against a cut on its lower abdomen.

"Stop this fight," Silphymon shouted loudly. "I do not wish to destroy you."

"All pursuers must be destroyed," snarled Kyuukimon as the kitsune lifted his arms and pressed them together. His body split into three, in the middle was his normal pink body and to the left and right of him were two black clones of him, in the same position with their arms held against each other. The lithe, pink digimon then lunged forward as he spun, turning into a pink drill, the two clones followed suit turning into black twisters, "Mind, Body, Soul, Three Rensei!"

"I can play that game, too," Silphymon snarled and he leapt into the air and pushed his hands forward. He then started a horizontal spin, "Tempest Wing!"

The gray and white gale that spun around Silphymon dwarfed the three spinning wind drills of Kyuukimon. Silphymon exploded from the wind field as the tornado he created engulfed the three air drills. The spinning river of gray wind roared into the sky and spat Kyuukimon out. His clones poofed into dark dust and flowed back into the pink furred kitsune's body.

The pink fox digimon hung in the air. Its white chest was puffing in and out indicating the heavy breath of the fox demon. Its blue hair was tossed out of its loose ponytail and now the hair was flying in every direction. The orange mustache was chopped haphazardly and its body was frayed. The blunt, cone-like head of Kyuukimon turned slightly down to where Silphymon was standing. Faster than the blink of an eye the pink digimon was rocketing toward the hawk-legged cyborg. Silphymon leapt backward as a scythe stabbed the brick street in front of him. The scythe armed digimon swung with its other arm and Silphymon jumped upward over the arm.

"You are completely blind with anger and rage," growled Silphymon as he looked down at Kyuukimon, "Stop this before you hurt yourself…"

"All pursuers must be destroyed!" Kyuukimon growled as he ripped his scythe from the brickwork, bringing several pieces of the masonry up with the curved blade.

Kyuukimon leapt upward with the speed of lightning. Silphymon ducked as Kyuukimon slashed a scythe at his head. The cyborg then weaved around behind the fox. Kyuukimon instantly turned and charged. The cyborg extended his clawed hand and sliced the sharp fingernails through the air. The screech of the claws through the air sounded like pulling a record's vinyl surface across the sharp point of a record player. Crimson energy swirled into existence in Silphymon's palms and the cyborg pushed forward his white furred hands.

"Static Force!" The energy burst erupted into Kyuukimon's chest, just as the fox was lifting its deadly scythes for an attack.

Kyuukimon flew backward from the force of the attack, crashing to the ground, sliding and bumping as he crashed along the brick surface of the street. Finally the beast jolted to a stop as its body crashed against the wall of a shop. The fox growled as it tried to stand. Suddenly, Kyuukimon's body seized up; it started to tremble and shake. Its body shook with convulsions. Black energy wafted off the beast's body like black smoke. Kyuukimon's body reverted to a slim digimon with green armor on its muscular torso. Ragged jeans covered its long legs. A pair of wooden swords was attached to its arms by wooden, box-like arm guards. The digimon's llama like face was completely covered by a blank mask, save for a pair of eyes and the long llama like ears. The digimon continued to convulse, curling up into a small ball.

"What are we going to do?" whimpered Hikari as she watched the digimon shaking and trembling. The whines of pain and the screams of anger roared up from the digimon as dark energy poured off of it.

"Nothing," The digimon in the brunette's arms replied.

The llama like swordsman screeched loudly as it glowed and reverted down to a small creature dressed in a kendo uniform. Two small horns trembled as the creature's head shook. The overly sleeved arms trembled. The mysterious dark face of the digimon coughed loudly, flicks of spittle shooting out between the bars of its face mask. The glowing golden eyes looked up at the children.

"What…happened…?" whispered the digimon quietly.

"You were turned into an Ultimate digimon by some bad guys," Miyako said quietly, "They used you for a weapon…I'm sorry we had to hurt you…but you were blinded by whatever power they had over you."

"ShogunGekomon's treasure, is it safe…?" whispered the little digimon as he tried to stand, but failed and fell backward.

"I'm afraid that's what Ninjamon and Impmon were after, a pair of gauntlets wasn't it?" replied Iori as the little boy walked forward and extended a hand to the digimon. "Do you have any idea what they'd want the gauntlets for, Kotemon?"

"None, our job was to guard it, not know what it was for," grumbled the digimon as it took the hazel eyed boy's hand and was pulled to his feet. The boy then shouldered the digimon, holding him.

"It looked like it gave the wearer stronger powers," Patamon said, the brown, hamster digimon was resting in Takeru's arms.

"Just what we need," grumbled Miyako.

"Well, at least we have someone on our side that can go toe to toe with an Ultimate," Ken said as he looked up at Silphymon.

The thin, white furred digimon glowed and a red stream and a green stream of light flew toward Miyako and entered her D-3 and then the humanoid digimon turned back into the red eagle, Aquilamon, before glowing again and reverting back to Hawkmon. The hawk smiled and walked next to Miyako.

"That was exhilarating, I never dreamed of being Silphymon alone before…" the red bird chuckled quietly.

"Not only that but you have the powers of Shurimon and Halsemon…" Miyako said, looking down at her partner. "I wonder why you were able to use Shurimon and Halsemon's attacks and techniques when you were Silphymon…"

"I think it's kind of obvious," Daisuke blurted loudly as he held his hands behind his head.

"Oh really?" Miyako growled as she turned around to look at the brown haired boy. "Well, then explain it, Mr. Smart Guy."

"It has to do with the digimentals," replied Daisuke simply. "Obviously when they merged they got some of Shurimon's and Halsemon's data wrapped in with them when they energized Aquilamon to Silphymon…" The tan boy smiled and then brought one his hands forward to rub his nose. The other children blinked and looked at each other. Daisuke smiled and looked at the pink haired girl. "You can say sorry now, Miyako…"

"I didn't actually think he'd…have an answer…let alone one that made sense…" Miyako blinked as she looked at the boy dressed in the flame colored jacket. "I'm…I'm sorry Daisuke…"

"It's ok, you just didn't know you were going up against such a vast intellect as mine…" said the boy with an arrogant grin.

Miyako clenched her fists, "Don't push your luck!"

"I must go," the Kotemon said as he pulled away from Iori, "The others must be alerted. We must find these thieves…before the shogun returns…"

"Jeesh, we better get going too," Takeru said as the blonde looked at the clock on the end of the street, "If the time is right, then we only have a few minutes before they lock us in the school…"

"Ack! Then let's get going!" Daisuke shouted as he gripped his partner's hand. The little blue dragon was yanked behind the tan skinned boy as he ran down the street.

The others giggled and ran after them. Their digimon were either in their arms, in the cases of Ken and Wormmon, Salamon and Hikari as well as Patamon and Takeru, or they were running behind their partners as in the case of Hawkmon and Miyako and Armadillomon and Iori. The digi-port was relatively close and they easily reached the TV within the time frame of one or two minutes. Daisuke, Hikari, Takeru, Iori and Miyako said goodnight to Ken, who had to go home to Tamachi, and was going to use the digi-port to go straight to his room, rather than take the bus from Odaiba to his home. Ken stepped back as Daisuke lifted his D-3. The TV blazed to life and sucked the five children into the screen, leaving Ken alone. Ken looked down at Wormmon.

"I wonder what you and Veemon will digivolve to; I mean Patamon will probably digivolve to MagnaAngemon and Salamon will probably turn into Angewomon," Ken said quietly as he looked down at the green caterpillar, "Armadillomon will probably digivolve to Shakkoumon, but…what about you and Veemon…I mean will we have two Paildramon?"

"We don't even know if anyone else can use the digimentals in the fashion that Miyako did," Wormmon said humbly in a low but clear mumble. "I mean Hikari, Takeru and you each have only one digimental. Both digimentals were needed to evolve Aquilamon to Silphymon…"

"Hmm, good point," Ken said quietly. Suddenly a sharp grumble and a hollow rumble erupted from the purple haired boy's stomach. "I guess I can worry about it after supper, I'm hungry."

"Ooo, me, too," Wormmon said as his head perked up, "I want a Caesar Salad with some croutons and I wonder if we're going to have fish or not…"

Ken smiled and lifted his D-3, "Well, let's go home and find out. Digi-port Open!"

The light from the television grabbed Ken and Wormmon and drew them into the screen leaving the street abandoned save for the orange glow of the lowering sun.


	3. The Eyes of T'ien Lung

**I don't own digimon.**

**The Eyes of T'ien Lung**

**888**

"So, Hawkmon evolved all the way to Silphymon by himself, Miyako?" Koushiro asked as they walked together along the sidewalk. The cinnamon haired boy flashed a smile at the pink haired girl as they walked.

"Yep, the digimentals merged or something," Miyako nodded as she unzipped the duffle bag that hung off her shoulder to her side.

A pink fuzz ball of feathers zipped out of the bag and fluttered about before landing gently in the girl's arms. It nestled comfortably against the green blouse of the girl's school uniform. Koushiro watched as the little, In Training, bird digimon cuddled with its partner gently nuzzling its beak against the girl's chest.

"So…" Koushiro said quietly watching Poromon, "do you guys have…"

"I'm up here," growled Miyako said as her hand grabbed Koushiro's chin and pushed upward bringing his eyes up to meet hers.

"Huh?" Koushiro blinked as he looked at the girl's annoyed glare.

"Gah, you guys don't even know your doing it," snorted Miyako as she walked away. "I would've thought someone as mature and smart like you would at least be subtle…"

Koushiro shook his head and ran after the girl, "I was looking at Poromon…I was thinking about his evolution using the digimentals…"

"Uh huh…" Miyako said as she turned around and walked backwards. Her skirt flowed with the movement. The ruffles of the green dress rolled out riding the wave the movement had caused. Her arms were curled around Poromon and Poromon was pressed against her chest. She lifted one hand and grasped one of the arms of her glasses and gently slid them lower down on the bridge of her nose so that her German chocolate-brown eyes cut over the top edge of the frames of her lens. "It was just convenient that Poromon was where he was, huh?" She smirked and shook her head, "If I didn't know better, I'd think you had a crush on me…you've come over the last couple of days and ate lunch with me…you've been walking me home, when your house is in the other general direction…"

"I suspect my actions would cause the observer to think that way," Koushiro said quietly pursing his lips. He clenched his fingers tightly around the small briefcase that he carried with him to school. "I assure you, though, that's not the case; I am just worried about you. I know how it feels to be the outcast. I don't want you to be too lonely."

"Awww, that's sweet," The pink haired girl's expression changed instantly. It softened and was less accusatory. Her glare turned into a gentle look of compassion.

She pressed her glasses back up and hopped forward. Before Koushiro could do anything something brushed against his right cheek. From the place where her lips had brushed against his cheek the feeling of a wash of flames rushed across his skin dilating the blood vessels of his right cheek until he was sure a red glow started to be emitted. The heat washed over his cheeks and his ears pulsed as the blood vessels pumped abnormally fast.

"I…well…I…" Koushiro flustered slightly.

"I can walk home, you should get yourself home," Miyako said with a giggle, Miyako took a step back and turned, walking away. She looked back at Koushiro and smiled, "you look a little…dazed."

"Well…that was…" Koushiro coughed and he tried to shake the blush that had turned his head into a radish. He blinked several times. "That was…" There or four more blinks of the redhead's brown eyes, "most unexpected…"

Something started beeping. It took a few minutes before Koushiro first realized that the beeping existed and then a few more seconds for him to really care enough to stop the beeping. Koushiro's fingers fumbled in his green jacket's pockets as they tried to fish out the beeping. A slim gray square glided out of his pocket and he quickly twirled it into his palm and clicked it open, the top popping up and away from the bottom. The top half had a brownish-gray screen with black kanji scrolled down its face.

"Oh cripes," Koushiro smacked his forehead with his hand, "The other guys…I forgot I scheduled a study time today!"

Koushiro shoved the slim, messaging machine into his jacket pocket and ran down the street. He disliked rushing, but sometimes there was no helping it and this was one of them. According to the email he had gotten on his D-Terminal, the others, mainly Sora, Taichi and Yamato were already at his home. His mother was away today, visiting a friend in the hospital. So, there was no one to greet them, and as such, they were now, all three of them, standing outside of his parents' apartment's door. Evidently, Ms. Kobaiyashi, an old woman that lived next door to his family, had started a fuss about young people loitering around private households and was threatening to call the police.

"Hold on guys I'm, coming!" Koushiro shouted to the air as his legs pumped and his feet thumped across the cement of the sidewalk.

888

"When I was your age…" Ms. Kobaiyashi was out again. The old woman looked liked one of those beef jerky strips; her skin was wrinkled and tanned to a dark color. Her eyes were nearly indiscernible between the folds of her brow and cheeks. Her gray hair was tied up in a tight bun on the top of her head but the bangs of her hair had gotten free and floated over her face like thin wisps of spent rain clouds after a spring storm. She wore a green dress that looked like it came out of a war movie. The old woman scrunched her face into a frown. "…We didn't have time to lounge around on someone's front porch!" Her claw like hands clenched onto the knob at the head of her cane. She lifted the smooth wooden rod up and shook it. "Kids today have no respect, no respect at all!"

"Kobaiyashi-san, please, understand, we are just waiting for our friend so we can study for our exams…" Sora said in a quiet, submissive tone. The brown haired girl bowed deeply to the old woman, "We do not mean to…"

TWACK! Sora yelped and grabbed her head as the old woman tapped the crown of Sora's skull with the end of her cane. The action was done relatively hard, not hard enough to do damage, just hard enough to make the brunette girl whimper and swear under her breath.

"Don't try being all nicey nice," growled the old woman.

"Oi, old crow, you don't have any right to hit her, she was just trying to be nice to you!" snapped Yamato loudly as he instantly crouched down next to Sora who was hissing as she rubbed her brown hair. Yamato's blue eyes glared up at the old woman.

"You going to threaten an old woman?" snorted Ms. Kobaiyashi. "No better than the yakuza."

"You deserve it!" Taichi shouted loudly gritting his teeth. "Jeesh, you can't just go around hitting people!"

The old woman grumbled quietly, "I don't want any yakuza brats in front of my…"

"Guys!" The three teens turned their head. A cinnamon haired boy came huffing up to them staggering to a stop. His face was flushed and he wobbled as he stood next to them, his hands on his thighs. He heaved deep breaths expanding his lungs outward. "Got…sidetracked…I'm…sorry…" The cinnamon haired boy lifted his head and looked at the old woman. He was still heaving quietly trying to get oxygen to his starved red blood cells, "Ms. Kobaiyashi…these are…" He took a gulp of air, "my friends…it's my fault…" another gulp of air was dragged unwillingly into the cinnamon haired boy's lungs, "that they were loitering about here…so please…leave them be."

"I see, Koushiro, but make sure you're quiet, I won't be listening to that crap you kids call music…through my walls," growled the old woman as she turned away and finally went back into her house.

Koushiro turned to his door and slowly fished out his keys and after two or three near misses he got the key into the lock of the apartment's door. After a quick turn of the key and a push the door swung open. The troop of teens walked into the apartment. Koushiro took off his shoes and wandered off into the kitchen.

Yamato looked over at Taichi who was taking off his shoes. The brunette, spiky haired boy looked up at the blonde. Yamato was still holding onto Sora slightly. The short haired brunette girl was still swearing quietly under her breath and a hand was still rubbing the crown of her head.

Yamato smirked slightly, looking to Tai, "Let the good times roll…"

888

Daisuke stretched, yawning loudly as he laid out on the couch in his family's living room. One of his legs was lying on the back of the couch, one was draped over the edge of the sofa cushion and his bare foot gently touched the wood floor. His arms came back and dropped onto his stomach, he scratched his tummy absentmindedly through the blue shirt he was wearing. The shirt rode up as his fingers gently dragged the cloth upward. It had been quiet the entire day. No SOSes from the Digital World, Jun was going to the mall with Momoe. His mother and father were still at work. The only one with him was a small, blue and white fuzzy plush doll, his partner, DemiVeemon. The little digimon shifted its weight in its sleep as Daisuke scratched his tummy and the creature then curled up on a portion of his stomach that was exposed. The little digimon was snoozing quietly there against his fuzzy bluish fur, warming Daisuke's soft brown skin.

Orange dust covered the little, In Training digimon's mouth and its stubby fingers. DemiVeemon had been stuffing his face with Cheetos. Daisuke lifted his hand and rubbed his nose. His hand returned to its place on his stomach and then it lifted a little to scratch behind DemiVeemon's ears. The little digimon squirmed slightly and rolled over, exposing its tummy for Daisuke's tan fingers to scratch. The digimon's movement felt like a fuzzy peach rolling over his stomach. Daisuke bit his lip trying not to giggle profusely, fearing that DemiVeemon would be propelled off of his stomach and go plopping onto the hardwood floor.

Daisuke closed his eyes for a bit. Just as his mind started to fade into the shadows of sleep a sharp whistling cut into his ears. Daisuke's eyes snapped open and he jerked upward. DemiVeemon rolled off of the brown haired boy's stomach and bounced onto the couch cushions, rolling head over heels. Daisuke was about to reach out for the small device that was emitting the whistling beep but suddenly something caught his peripheral vision.

"Fire Rocket!" yelped DemiVeemon in a chirping growl.

The plush, blue, In Training digimon launched upward and smashed his forehead into Daisuke's chest. The boy caught the small digimon as it bounced harmlessly off of his sternum. The little digimon blinked and looked upward. A burst of red played over its cheeks.

"Good dream?" Daisuke asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Kind of…" replied DemiVeemon as his cheeks grew redder. "I just saved Gatomon from a large Tyranomon…"

"Ah…" Daisuke said nodding in acknowledgement. He rubbed the digimon's head roughly with his hand and then grasped the D-Terminal. He flipped it open and sighed quietly as his eyes ran over the message.

"What is it Daisuke?" DemiVeemon asked as he crawled up on the boy's lap.

"Get the computer booted up," Daisuke said as he put DemiVeemon on the floor and stood up. "We're going to the Digital World. A village of Yuki Agumon is asking for help…"

"Better get you're jacket," called DemiVeemon as he hopped toward the computer that was on a desk against the living room wall. "The Yuki Agumon live in the Arctic region of the Digital World."

"I hate the cold!" grumbled Daisuke as he hopped around on one foot trying to get his one of his tennis shoes on.

Daisuke hopped back across the floor getting the other shoe on. He stumbled forward pressing both of his hands on the door to a closet to keep himself from planting his face into the wooden face of the door. His hand reached over and opened the closet. A few seconds later Daisuke was slipping his arms into the sleeves of a red and brown winter jacket.

"The Digi-port program is online, Daisuke," shouted DemiVeemon as he looked into the glowing screen on the computer's monitor. Daisuke walked up behind the little digimon, who was sitting on the top of the desk.

"Good thing Koushiro installed it onto everyone's computers just in case," said Daisuke as he bit the wrist of a glove pulling the fingers of the gray glove over the fingers of his hand. The brown haired boy adjusted a pair of goggles on his head wincing as the band snagged on a few strands of his fuzzy brown hair. Daisuke reached into his coat pocket, "Ok, ready DemiVeemon?" The little digimon nodded. Daisuke lifted his blue D-3 up to the computer screen. "Digi-port open!"

888

"Give that back!" shouted a group of white digimon as they ran forward. They had blue eyes and broad snouts. Their overall bodies looked like that of a diminutive tyrannosaur.

"Heh, like we'd listen to a bunch of wusses like you!" shouted a lavender furred digimon. A red ascot was tied around his neck which hung over a smiley face that was printed on his stomach. The digimon lifted a hand with a red glove and snapped his fingers a maroon flame burst into life. His white face curled into a demonic smile. "You Yuki Agumon are probably terrified of this, being ice type digimon; a little fire will have you in a tizzy…"

"Someone's coming," A digimon standing next to the impish digimon said. It was a round bodied digimon dressed in orange-red. An orange red hood covered its head and upper face and reddish armor covered its arms and legs as well as mail-like armor on its lower legs. Golden rimmed spectacles were over his eyes. The lenses of the spectacles were glowing.

"Those digi-twerps?" asked the imp sharply.

"No…" replied the digimon quietly. "It seems that the Yuki Agumon had a visitor in their midst, Impmon."

"That's right…" growled a voice. The white tyrannosaurs separated revealing a lavender dragon. It had a single horn projecting up from its forehead. Its arms were attached to its torso by bat-like wings. The dragon growled as it cracked its knuckles. "I believe those glasses belong to the Yuki Agumon."

"The Eyes of T'ien Lung are not for weaklings like you," snorted the lavender imp as he pointed a red gloved finger forward. "So know your business and stay out of it!"

"These Yuki Agumon saved me after I got lost in a blizzard, they fed me, bandaged me and allowed me to rest here until I could move on my own," the dragon growled as he walked forward, "I won't allow a pair of two bit thieves take something that they consider a treasure."

"Peh, no good, nicey nice digimon like you are sickening," snorted Impmon. He flicked his finger up. A fireball formed at the tip of his finger. "Bada Boom!"

The maroon fireball exploded at the dragon digimon's feet, but the lavender dragon didn't flinch. The dragon's eye brow arched slightly.

"Are you challenging me?" asked the dragon quietly.

"No, don't Monodramon," whispered one of the Yuki Agumon.

"No, don't worry, I'll be fine, digimon like this Impmon are nothing compared to me, I'm a Dramon after all…" snorted the lavender dragon, "We're tough…"

"Heh, you speak like being a Dramon is so special…if only you knew…" Impmon chuckled as he lifted his right hand to his forehead. "You'd stop fighting us and help us…"

"Never!" growled Monodramon loudly.

"You say that as if it's impossible," chuckled Impmon quietly. He looked over at his spherical friend. A dark circle cut into the snow on the ground. The white crystals flew into the air as the circle's periphery spun into existence. "Infernal Funnel…" A light erupted from the middle of the circle and a ball of fire about the size of a beach ball appeared in the air. Impmon narrowed his hazel eyes and thrust his arms forward. "BADA BOOM!"

The ball of fire shot forward. Monodramon growled and launched forward roaring toward the fire ball. He clenched his clawed hands into a tight fist. Sharp spikes shot out of the lavender flesh of the dragon's knuckles.

"Beat Knuckle!" Monodramon sliced through the fireball.

The dragon continued to charge forward. Impmon, still stunned at the fact that Monodramon sliced through the fireball so fast, stood frozen as the dragon rushed him. Monodramon retracted his knuckle claws and smashed one of his fists into the gut of Impmon. The purple digimon staggered backward as the dragon put his full weight into the punch. Monodramon growled and cut upward with his left fist landing a hard punch on Impmon's chin. The imp flew backward and crash down. A white puff of snow swirled up around the area where Impmon crashed down. Monodramon leapt into the air and spread his webbed arms out. He opened his mouth and his fangs elongated. He snapped his mouth shut.

"Cracking Bite!" A golden beam fired from the dragon's, closed mouth.

Impmon gulped as the beam smashed into his gut. A searing pain ripped through his stomach and he looked down. Two rows of bite marks crossed his abdomen.

"Damn it, you two, help me!" Impmon shouted in agony.

"Huh, sorry…" the round digimon said as it snapped out of its stupor.

"Ninjamon, I'm getting pasted!" Impmon growled as he held his gut. He was on his knees holding his stomach. "Get rid of this nuisance…."

"We have a better idea," Ninjamon sneered and looked up at where Monodramon was hovering on his wings. "It's time we have some fun and you're going help us…"

"Never!" Monodramon growled loudly. He opened his mouth and extended his fangs. "Cracking…."

The spherical digimon whipped its hand up and held a black ball. "Dark Digicore Activate!"

A wave of darkness fired from the sphere and washed over Monodramon. The Yuki Agumon gulped and took a step back as the darkness swirled around their friend.

"Monodramon dark digivolve to…" The darkness extended to the ground. It took the shape of a therapod. It roared loudly as the darkness burned away from the huge dinosaur digimon. It was like a tyrannosaur. Dark gray skin covered its body. Lavender stripes covered its legs, neck, tail and snout. Black and red feathers covered the back of the dragon's head like a Mohawk. "…Allomon!"

"Allomon," Ninjamon leapt over, grabbed Impmon and then leapt on Allomon's head. "Let's terrorize some Yuki Agumon…"

"Monodramon!" Shouted the smaller, white tyrannosaurs as the much larger, gray Allosaur turned its head to them. "Please, Monodramon, snap out of it, don't do this!"

"Dino Burst!" growled Allomon as a huge fire ball formed in its gullet. The flames exploded downward. The Yuki Agumon dove out of the way as the flames instantly melted the snow they'd been standing on.

"Little Blizzard!" the group of small, white tyrannosaurs retorted as they opened their mouth and released a wave of frozen air.

The combined effect of the twenty or so Rookies forced Allomon to stagger back. The allosaur snorted in annoyance.

"Dino Burst!" Fire balls smashed into the ground forcing the Yuki Agumon to retreat haphazardly away from the flames and melting snow. The hissing sound of fire meeting liquefying snow filled the air. Steam swirled around the allosaur's snout.

"Little Blizzard!" came an uneven retort from five or six of the Yuki Agumon. The snowy attacks puffed against the leathery skin of Allomon like powdered sugar hitting a day old doughnut.

"Dino…" Allomon opened his mouth.

"Fire Rocket!" A thin figure was twisting towards Allomon. It was swathed in flames. The attacker smashed his entire body into Allomon; the flames rushed from the figure's body and enwrapped Allomon completely.

Allomon snarled as he twisted in the flames. The dinosaur looked down at his attacker, a dragon digimon. It had blue skin. It was thin and lithe, but muscular and stronger than it looked. Its head had a flamed painted helmet with a sharp up-curved horn. Its forearms had round, flame colored gauntlets, as did its shins. Its chest and waist had the similarly decorated armor on them.

"Flamedramon…" growled Ninjamon from atop of Allomon's head. "That means…" The glasses that Ninjamon was wearing glowed brightly. They showed a child wearing a flame decaled, brown winter's jacket. He was stomping forward through the snow, from the village. "There he is…Allomon! Find the human, get rid of him!"

"Not going to happen," snarled Flamedramon loudly. The fire dragon clenched his fist. "Fire Knuckle!"

Fireballs flew from the dragon's fist and exploded across Allomon's chest. The Allosaur roared as it staggered backward. Allomon opened its mouth and returned fire sending a volley of fireballs back at Flamedramon. The dragon deftly leapt and danced through the barrage.

"He's too damned fast, Ninjamon," snarled the imp that laid at the shinobi's feet.

"Yeah, like you can measure an opponent," Ninjamon retorted haughtily. Ninjamon growled as another vision flashed through the lenses. "The others will be here…"

888

Daisuke hated the cold. He'd said that many times, but then again it was true, he hated the cold. He had many reasons for it but the one he was experiencing now was more that enough. His lungs felt like someone was wringing them out. Every breath felt as if some clawed beast had ripped into his chest and grabbed onto his lungs squeezing and kneading them like bread dough. He ran through a small village of igloos. The white domes of snow and ice seemed to spread out from the middle in a circular shape.

Daisuke heard the fighting farther ahead. He wondered where the others were. They should've been here by now. The igloos started to thin out in density as he reached the other side of the village. He skidded to a stop. Snow in the roads flooded into the gaps between his shoe and his socks. He shivered as the cold sensation cut up his legs and back. The ground in front of him was black and charred but was still wet from melted snow.

"Dino Burst!" a huge fireball roared forward from a gray and lavender dinosaur.

Daisuke gulped as he looked blindly at the oncoming meteor of flames. A red and blue blur slid in front of the fireball and thrust a fist forward. The ball of flames collapsed into a wave of fire that engulfed the blur.

"Flamedramon!" yelped Daisuke loudly as his partner crashed to the ground. Burns covered his exposed skin. The dragon's blue flesh also had lavender bruises. The flame decaled armor the lithe dragon wore was dented and scuffed.

"He's too…big…" Flamedramon grumbled, as he got up and sat hunched on one knee. "I don't have enough firepower. I can just barely hold him, but I don't have the strength to push him back…"

"What the heck is that thing?" Daisuke asked quietly. He looked at the large, bipedal dinosaur. His eyes narrowed as he saw two familiar figures. One was a digimon who looked like nothing more than a flesh colored soccer ball with arms and legs. It had a red hood on its head red armor on its limbs. The other was a lavender demon with a red ascot. "Ninjamon and what's his name…"

"OI! DON'T FORGET ME!" shouted the little demon loudly from atop the dinosaur.

"They…turned our friend Monodramon into that monster…and made him attack us…" whimpered a group of voices from the small scrubby bushes that seemed to have survived the flames that had scorched the earth. A group of digimon appeared. Daisuke blinked several times as he looked into the blue eyes of several white Agumon.

"Who's Monodramon?" Daisuke said in a tone that showed his growing frustration. He didn't seem to understand anything being said. "What's going on!?"

"Our friend, Monodramon tried to take the Eyes of T'ien Lung from that Ninjamon and his little friend," explained one of the bigger Agumon.

"I'M NOT LITTLE!" shouted the little imp as he stomped his feet on the head of the dinosaur he and the Ninjamon were riding on.

"Monodramon cleaned the little guy's clock…" continued the little white tyrannosaur.

"OI!" The little imp shouted loudly clenching his fists, "I didn't get my clock cleaned!"

"That's when they used some large, black ball to turn Monodramon into…Allomon," said the Agumon quietly, ignoring the ravings of the little demon. "And then they made him attack us…"

"So that big guy is your friend, Monodramon?" Daisuke said quietly as he looked up at the dinosaur.

"Was their friend," shouted the imp loudly. "Allomon, TOAST THEM!"

"Dino Burst!" roared Allomon loudly as he launched another blast of fire at the Agumon.

"Flamedramon, we gotta protect them!" shouted Daisuke as he ran toward the little white tyrannosaurs.

The fire dragon leapt in front of the oncoming fireball and thrust one of his fists forward and flung a volley of his own flames. The two attacks smashed together and canceled each other out. Daisuke herded the icy Agumon back toward the village.

"Dino Burst!"

"RAH!" Daisuke spun around and saw Flamedramon crashing to the ground, smoke rolling off his armor. The dragon glowed brightly and a red beam of light flew into Daisuke's D-3. A small dragon was lying on the ground. It had a broad forehead with a golden V engraved on it. A tiny horn was perched on its nose on his smooshed face.

"Veemon, are you ok?" Daisuke shouted as he looked at his partner.

"I'm fine…" grumbled the little dragon as he hopped to his feet, "but this guy is too tough for Flamedramon…"

"Right, let's bump it up then," Daisuke said as he lifted his blue skinned digivice.

"Veemon digivolve to…" The little dragon glowed with golden light and grew. Large, leathery, white wings unfurled from the little dragon's new body. His head became more dragon-like face with a stronger more crocodilian snout, complete with horn on its tip. Its arms became thicker and sharp knobs formed on his knuckles. A tattoo of cross swords appeared on the dragon's white chest. "….ExVeemon!" The dragon instantly brought his hands up and rubbed them over his leather blue arms. "Ack, I forgot it was so cold!"

"Allomon, destroy that thing!" shouted Ninjamon loudly pointing a sword at ExVeemon. "Now!"

"Dino Burst!" roared Allomon loudly. A fireball roared toward ExVeemon.

"Jeesh, you play the same tune over and over!" ExVeemon growled. The dragon charged forward and clenched his fist, "EX-V PUNCH!" The knobs on ExVeemon's knuckles glowed and smashed through the fireball dispersing the flames. ExVeemon smirked for a few second before yelping and waving his hand in the air. "Remind me not to do that again…"

"Again! Don't back down to him!" shouted Ninjamon loudly.

"Dino Burst!"

"V Laser!" A golden light enveloped ExVeemon's tattoo and fired a cross of energy at the oncoming fireball. The two attacks exploded at their midpoint neutralizing each other. ExVeemon growled and took a step back. "This isn't good, even at Champion level I am running even with this guy…" ExVeemon narrowed his eyes, "I've got no choice then, full steam!"

ExVeemon roared loudly and charged forward. He swung a fist forward hoping to smash it into Allomon's chin. The fist was caught in Allomon's three fingered hand. ExVeemon growled and launched the other fist forward and grumbled as Allomon's other hand clenched around his hammer-like fist. ExVeemon growled and dug his feet into the earth and pushed forward, straining against the slight weight and height advantage Allomon had against him.

"We got him, ExVeemon!" Daisuke shouted.

"Who's got whom?" Ninjamon giggled, "Allomon! Do it!"

"Dino Burst!"

"Aww…crap…" ExVeemon snorted as the fireball exploded onto his chest.

The dragon crashed to the ground and roared as his skin was singed. Fortunately, his leathery epidermis was relatively flame retardant, though that didn't matter much when Allomon pivoted its hips and smacked its heavy tail into ExVeemon's head. ExVeemon crashed backward landing heavily on his wings and spine. He slid across the scorched earth. The mud oozed out of the way as the dragon dug a culvert into the ground with his body.

"Finish this now!" Ninjamon shouted with a bit too much glee for Daisuke's taste.

His brown eyes narrowed and he clenched his gloved hands into tight fists. "You think you're so tough! Hiding like little cowards behind some poor slave you made out of these guys' friend! You don't have any strength. You just corrupt the strength of others, rob it and then use it against innocent digimon, and for what, a sparkly pair of glasses, a big, black marble and a couple of shiny gloves?"

"You don't think we're strong? You don't think beating your pathetic beast up was enough? Maybe we should crush him, utterly," growled Ninjamon loudly as he held up his hand. A black sphere warped into existence on his palm. "You could barely handle Allomon…you won't be able to come close to even dealing with this…Dark Digicore Activate!"

Allomon's gray skin dripped with black ooze. Huge wings ripped from the back of the allosaur's back. Its head changed shape, becoming more triangular than its previous square snout. A horn jutted upward from the tip of its snout and a pair ripped out of the top of its head. Its hands grew two more fingers.

"Allomon dark digivolve to…," The darkness fled from the dragon that flapped its wings with a sharp assertion of power, "AeroVeedramon!"

The dragon's skin was gray, save for its arms and legs which were covered in a white, bony armor. Its fingers ended in long, bony claws. The beast snarled savagely as it glared down at Daisuke and ExVeemon.

"Don't worry, Daisuke," ExVeemon grunted as he rose to his feet with a stagger. "I've got this one…"

"Pathetic, so stupid that he doesn't even realize when he's finished," growled Ninjamon loudly. The little digimon pointed its sword forward. "AeroVeedramon, make paste out of ExVeemon!"

"Magnum Crush!" roared AeroVeedramon as the larger, winged dragon charged forward.

ExVeemon crossed his arms over his tattooed chest trying to summon a V-Laser, but AeroVeedramon was much faster than ExVeemon. A bony fist smashed into ExVeemon's gut and the blue dragon curled forward, only to have his face met with the AeroVeedramon's other fist. The blue dragon flew into the air and arced backward smashing though the igloo village of the Yuki Agumon. ExVeemon was sprawled out in the rubble of the igloo that stopped his momentum. Blocks of ice haphazardly landed across his legs and chest. AeroVeedramon stalked up to the smaller, blue dragon and grabbed ExVeemon by the up curved horn on his snout. ExVeemon hung limply from AeroVeedramon's grip. The gray fleshed dragon tossed ExVeemon like a rag doll back onto the stretch of charred earth they'd come from.

"ExVeemon!" Daisuke rushed across the slippery earth, sliding and falling as he went. His clothes were caked in mud, his face was dirty and his lungs hurt from the cold air freezing his chest, but none of that mattered. ExVeemon was hurt he had to do something to help him. "Get up!" Daisuke narrowed his eyes and thought. _"Where are the others…?"_

"Finish him!" shouted Ninjamon loudly from atop AeroVeedramon. The dragon slowly stalked forward his feet crunching in the snow and broken igloos.

"Eagle Eye!" Daisuke smiled broadly as a red gryphon sliced the air overhead, with a pair of red eye beams that zapped the gray dragon in the back.

"Equus Beam!" His smile grew as a golden horse glided past an emerald beam firing from its forehead into the back of AeroVeedramon.

"Cat's Eye Beam!" He clenched his fist and nodded as a white sphinx fired a pink stream of light into the back

"Heartner Beam!" A pink fairy leapt into the air and pointed one of its rubbery gloved fingers down at AeroVeedramon. A pink blast of energy smashed into the dragon's back.

AeroVeedramon roared angrily and reared back, arching his spine as he did so. It was then that the ground started to shake. The earth exploded upward as a maize colored beetle with drills on its hands and snout launched upward. AeroVeedramon staggered as the ground was removed from under its feet but the dragon didn't fall. It simply flapped its crimson wings and lifted off of the ground. It snarled as the new arrivals lined up between him and Daisuke.

"It's about time!" shouted Daisuke loudly.

"Some of us don't have the luxury of an empty house, Daisuke!" snarled a pink haired girl; she was amongst a group of children five children who were trying to make it through the rubble of the Yuki Agumon village.

"Why didn't you see them coming!?" shouted the little imp who was riding on AeroVeedramon's head with Ninjamon. The imp glared at Ninjamon, "those glasses are supposed to allow you to see everything!"

"Who said I didn't?" Ninjamon replied. Ninjamon smirked and pointed his sword down at the Armored digimon that were between him and Daisuke. "AeroVeedramon, remove these pests!"

"Get out of here you guys, he'll destroy you," Daisuke shouted loudly at the Armored digimon, "Take the others and retreat!"

"We're not leaving you here, Daisuke!" one of the children shouted. It was a brunette girl with soft brown eyes. She was wearing a pink coat with faux fur cuffs and edges.

"Kari's right!" shouted a blonde haired boy in a puffy, blue winter's jacket.

"Fools, you should listen to you're moron friend," snorted Ninjamon. He stomped his foot on AeroVeedramon's head, "Do it, AeroVeedramon!"

AeroVeedramon fanned his wings outward. The Armored digimon charged forward. The horse and sphinx lanced the sky with pink and emerald energy bolts. The red gryphon released a vortex of wind. The pink fairy elongated his heart tipped antennae and whipped them forward striking the sharpened heart tips against the dragon's chest. The beetle digimon fired his drills forward like missiles. They spun through the air but the dragon merely lifted its armored arm up and smacked the drills away. AeroVeedramon snorted and closed his eyes. His large, bony-fingered wings glowed with a red energy.

"V-Wing Blade!" A gothic, V-shaped blade fired from the dragon's wings.

The crimson apparition sliced past the four Armored digimon hovering in front of him and then through the beetle digimon who was crouched on the ground. The earth was cleaved and mud and steam flew into the air. Daisuke leapt on top of ExVeemon's prone body and dug his face into the dragon's chest. When the rain of mud ceased Daisuke looked up. He closed his eyes and tilted his head downward. Four, Rookie digimon were lying on the ground, defenseless and unconscious. Their partners were standing in shock at the edge of the dismantled Yuki Agumon village.

"Again! AeroVeedramon!" shouted Ninjamon loudly. "AGAIN!"

"NO!" Daisuke shouted as he leapt forward and skid to a stop in the center of the destruction. "Why do you have to keep going!? You won!"

"Idiot, you'll just keep getting in our way," snorted Ninjamon with an annoyed voice, "And we don't need you to do that yet. We'll delete your digimon and they'll be back in about a month or so…and by that time we'll want you involved. Don't think of it as us killing your friends, think of it as us giving you a forced, unpaid vacation…"

"What kind of cowards are you?" Daisuke growled. He clenched his fists, "first you turn the Yuki Agumon's friend against them and then you use their friend as a wall to hide behind and now you're preying on defenseless digimon…and all because you don't want us around 'right now'? If not now, then when, and why later!?"

"After Impmon and us recover the Seven Dramon Seals," sighed Ninjamon. "All will be clear."

"What are you planning?" shouted Daisuke loudly. "Who are you working for!?"

"That, my dear boy, would not be nearly as fun if we told you," Ninjamon replied quietly, as he looked down at the child. "Now move aside!"

"Never! If you think I'm going to step aside and let you blow my friends to kingdom come, you've got another think coming!" Daisuke shouted, clenching his fists and taking a sturdy stance in the squishing, unstable mud. The other children rushed to their partners and stood up looking in defiance at Ninjamon. Daisuke pointed up at the little shinobi, "They deserve better than to be defeated by a couple of cowards like you, who can't even fight their own fights!"

"AeroVeedramon…" Ninjamon growled under his breath. "Destroy ExVeemon."

"EXVEEMON! GET UP!" Daisuke shouted loudly. "Please…buddy, get up!"

The sky changed color. Daisuke's digivice screeched loudly as two objects ejected from his D-Terminal where his Digimentals of Courage and Friendship were stored. A blue streak and a red streak fired from Daisuke's D-3. The two lines of color twisted around each other as they flew. The lights enveloped ExVeemon's body. The dragon was lifted from the muddy ear in a blue and red bubble. The two colors twisted and danced over the bubble's surface.

"ExVeemon Armor Synthesis Digivolve to…" Three pairs of wings tore through the bubble of energy that surrounded ExVeemon. The top pair of wings was blue, the middle pair of wings was white and the bottom pair of wings was orangey red. Dark green, almost black, armor covered the newly emerged dragon's torso. White bisected the green, thoracic armor. The dragon's blue skin was exposed on its upper arms and lower legs. Black gauntlets covered the dragon's lower arms, the gauntlets ended with clawed fingers. A spike stuck out on the back of the dragon's hand. The thighs of the new digimon also had black armor. Its head was covered by a black helmet with a red band that went around the dragon's round, forehead. The band swept up into a crest of red armor. "…Paildramon: Thunderous Firestorm of Friendship and Courage!" Paildramon glared at Ninjamon. "You have no strength. You are a despicable little beast. This ends now!" Two cannons swiveled up from Paildramon's hips. The dragon clutched the cannons with his hands, "Desperado Blaster!"

Spitfire bolts of energy fired from the muzzles of the cannons. Ninjamon looked up in fear as the energy bolts burned through the air towards them.

"Don't just hover here!" shouted Impmon loudly at the dragon he was standing on.

"AeroVeedramon, annihilate it…" Ninjamon said with a growl.

"V-Wing Blade!" roared AeroVeedramon as he sliced his wings forward.

A crimson apparition sliced through the air and tore the bolts of energy from Paildramon's hip cannons to bits. Paildramon quickly rose above the V shaped blade. He swept his arms out and the two sharp spikes on the top of his gauntlets extended out. Paildramon then dive-bombed downward, slicing his spikes at AeroVeedramon. The gray skinned dragon was quick to grab Paildramon's hands and the two strained against each other, with Paildramon trying to drive the spikes home into AeroVeedramon and AeroVeedramon trying to toss Paildramon away to open up the gap between to release another V-Wing Blade.

"Bada Boom!" shouted Impmon as he flung a fireball into Paildramon's face.

The green armored dragon flinched, giving AeroVeedramon the opening he needed. AeroVeedramon pushed and Paildramon lost aerial balance and started to tumble towards the ground.

"Oi! That's dirty, you cheat!" shouted Daisuke loudly.

"Pfft, as long as it gets what I want!" snorted the imp loudly.

"AeroVeedramon, now!" Ninjamon shouted.

"Cable Catcher!" Paildramon whipped one of his hands up as he tumbled. His claws flew forward attached to long black cables. The claws swung around Ninjamon and tightly bound him and with a simple yank Ninjamon was pulled from AeroVeedramon and into the clutches of Paildramon. "Guess we're going together…"

"What was that about playing dirty?" Impmon laughed as he glared down at Daisuke.

"V-Wing…." AeroVeedramon curled his wings forward.

"No! STOP!" shouted Ninjamon loudly. The dragon hung in the air in an uncanny stupor, as if waiting for further instruction, stuck in mid-attack. Ninjamon struggled and glared up at Paildramon, "So, now what? Are you going to attack a digimon, which for all intents and purposes, is defenseless…you can't keep him like that and you can't release me…"

"Give us the Dark Digicore," Paildramon growled, looking into Ninjamon's eyes.

"Heh, I can't do that…my master would be angry," Ninjamon snorted, smugly. Ninjamon wriggled again and there was a soft popping sound. Ninjamon smirked. "AeroVeedramon, attack!"

"What?" Paildramon's eyes widened as he looked down at the small shinobi.

"Not quite tight enough Paildramon; it's good I can dislocate my shoulder at will," chuckled Ninjamon. The little shinobi closed his eyes. "Jouhatsujutsu!"

There was a puff of smoke and flash of light and Ninjamon disappeared out of Paildramon's clawed grasp. The dragon looked up, mortified as he watched AeroVeedramon fan its wings open and the eerie blood-red glow cover the primary phalange on the outer surface of the wing.

"No choice…" Paildramon swept his arms up. "Cable Catcher!"

His tethered claws flew forward swinging around AeroVeedramon once, twice and a third time, binding the dragon's wings. Paildramon then jerked the cables and dragged AeroVeedramon to the ground smashing the gray fleshed dragon into the earth. Impmon bounced across the earth and scrambled quickly.

"Stupid DemiMamon where are you!?" shouted the imp, loudly as he scurried away.

"Get him!" shouted the Yuki Agumon. The white tyrannosaurs charged after Impmon.

"ACK! Stay away, stay away!" shouted Impmon, as he ran.

"We have to drain his power…" Iori's voice shouted. Daisuke turned around and nodded at the younger boy, who was wearing a long navy blue coat.

"Paildramon, we have to keep it up until AeroVeedramon de-digivolves!" Daisuke called out.

AeroVeedramon was rolling in the mud roaring angrily. His wings quivered as he attempted to rip free from the cables that bound him. Paildramon dug his feet into the sloppy, semi-liquid soil trying to get his claws into a more sturdy position.

"He's stronger than me physically…" growled Paildramon as he wrestled with the cables trying to hold AeroVeedramon. "I got it…Thunder Blast!"

Streaks of blue lightning coursed down Paildramon's right arm and down the set of cables attached to his right gauntlet. AeroVeedramon snarled as he struggled against the snapping, crackling and burning bolts of electricity. AeroVeedramon opened his mouth and snapped it on top of the electrically charged cables. The electricity shot through the dragon's mouth and he roared loudly releasing the cables, but a few seconds later he was back at it.

"What is he doing!?" Miyako shouted as she painfully watched. "Doesn't he know it hurts!?"

"He's trying to sever the link!" Iori said soberly. "It's pure survival. He's trying to break free even if it hurts immensely…"

"Just like the bear that gets stuck in a trap and gnaws off a limb," whispered Takeru quietly.

"Fire Knuckle!" growled Paildramon. His left gauntlet blazed with flames and rushed down the cable. AeroVeedramon twisted and writhed, roaring angrily. Paildramon narrowed his eyes, "Don't resist, let the energy burn off…"

Lightning arched across AeroVeedramon's body as flames swirled around his flesh. The dragon roared angrily and rolled around trying to free himself. It snapped at the cables, trying to bite through them. Finally, black smoke rolled off of AeroVeedramon. Paildramon pulled the cables back and looked down. A single, lavender, dragon digimon was lying of the ground. It twitched slightly from the residual charge that snapped and crackled across the wet earth. Paildramon walked slowly up to the little dragon and picked it up, cradling it in his arms. The dragon's eyes opened and it whispered something to Paildramon. The dragon nodded and walked over to the digi-destined.

"What'd he say?" Daisuke asked impatiently.

"He said…" Paildramon looked down at the unconscious dragon. "'Prepare for Armageddon.'"

888

"How are things progressing?" a shadow hovered in the corner of a dark, cold cave.

Pal and Pul looked down sullenly. The twin DemiMamon bowed quietly, placing their scepters on the floor in front of them. They had floppy, triangular ears that were touching the ground. Their leather suits glinted in the weak candle light coming from the small oil lamps on the cavern walls. Pul looked up and rubbed the red tattoo on his forehead.

"They went well enough, but there has been some unexpected variables added," replied Pul, who stood on the left. Pul's twin Pal nodded vigorously.

"Variables?" the voice snorted. "You know that I do not like the idea of the unexpected ruining my plans…as it is, my alliance is wearing thin…I do not know how long I can stay in contact with you. You will have to proceed on your own for now with no further guidance…"

"That's ok," Pal said, looking up into the shadows, "We have the Eyes of T'ien Lung, we can find the other items easily…."

Pal shivered as the shadow seemed to change shape a pair of eyes glared down at him, cold, angry eyes. "Are you suggesting that I am no longer needed? Are you going to rebel, turn your back on me!?"

"I'm sorry, Master!" yelped Pal as he dropped to his knees and bowed, until his head touched the hard, rocky floor of the cavern. "Please, don't hold this against me…"

A dissatisfied chuff spat from the shadows. "Where is that weaselly, little boggart, Impmon!?"

"He's sleeping, he had a bit of a run in with the Yuki Agumon…and Monodramon," replied Pul, quietly. Pul walked forward his round, body was covered in purple fur save for his white face. His small wings contracted and relaxed as he walked up to the shadow. "We were attacked by a Monodramon, I could see his thoughts, he was sent by Azulongmon. It won't be long before the other Harmonious Ones are engaged in this."

"Azulongmon is unlikely to act quickly, ever since he sealed his brethren away, he's been resigned to acting through others, like any other guilty coward…" replied the shadow with a chuckle. "You're main concern is the digi-destined, you must be rid of them until you get the Dramon Seals, after that…disengage."

"Yes, Master," Pul bowed deeply. "We will try better next time…"

"See that you do," growled the shadow as it receded into the cavern, "see that you do."


	4. Fangs of Nidhogg

**I don't own Digimon. **

**The Fangs of Nidhogg**

**888**

"Tell them, we're taking the Fangs of Nidhogg," snorted a round, red clothed shinobi as he pushed Gomamon to the ground. The white and purple seal grunted as his body rolled across the ground. "Give them the coordinates."

"What makes you think I'll do that?" retorted the seal loudly.

"Because if you don't, we're going to come here and release an unholy beast on your sector and destroy everything in this ice filled desert," A lavender imp growled from behind the shinobi, "don't act like a hero. Just do what you're told."

"I don't like being bossed around," Gomamon replied as he looked at the two digimon. "I don't even take orders from Jyou."

"Don't think of it as an order then," Ninjamon replied as he turned and started to walk away, his covered feet leaving prints in the white snow. "Think of it as a request…"

"Most requests come with a 'please'," shouted Gomamon loudly as the ninja and the imp started to recede into the blowing snow.

The shinobi stopped and turned, "Then, do this for us….please."

With that the little ninja and his companion disappeared with a flash of light and puff of smoke. Gomamon sat there mulling over what had happened. He narrowed his eyes and turned, running toward a line of smoke in the distance.

"I have to get a hold of Tentomon," Gomamon said quietly to himself as he ran, "I have to warn the others."

888

Impmon crept slowly behind Ninjamon as they descended down the incline, going deeper into the darkness of the ice cave. The shinobi was holding a torch. Impmon crossed his arms and rubbed his fur gently trying to stay warm. Ninjamon was being quiet, ever since his talk with the master, three weeks ago; the shinobi had been more reclusive.

"So the fangs are here then?" asked Impmon with a grunt as he walked. Shinobi digimon didn't reply. Impmon grumbled under his breath and looked up at the back of the ninja's head. Most of the occipital region of the digimon's head was covered by the crimson hood that it wore. A sword was sheathed on top of the digimon's back. Impmon glared in the back of Ninjamon's head, "Oi! I asked a question!"

Ninjamon stopped and turned his head slightly. "The fangs are close." Ninjamon continued forward. He stopped and turned looking into Impmon's eyes with his own hazel eyes. "Why is it you were allowed to continue your existence in this world, why were you allowed to live in this world?"

Impmon blinked, "You know why. I'm not talking about it."

Impmon started to walk forward but Ninjamon stepped in front of him. Impmon stopped suddenly and growled. The little lavender furred gremlin took a step to the right, only to find his motions mirrored by Ninjamon.

"Answer me," Ninjamon growled grabbing Impmon by the chest and picking him up and dropping the torch. The failing light brought a shadow over Ninjamon's face, "Was it really that bad? Was it!? Why did you turn against them!? Why were you allowed to live!? Allowed to be free!?"

"If you think this is 'freedom' then you are sorely mistaken," Impmon replied with a snort as he struggled free and dropped to his feet. "To live a life, where everyday you realize that are only a shadow of your former strength. That is no life, that is no freedom…and as to your questions, I am sure your 'master' will tell you everything you wish to know."

Ninjamon snorted loudly and picked up the dimming torch, turning. The shinobi stuck the flame-end of the torch into his mouth. He took the remaining club out and swished his saliva back and forth and then spat forward, releasing a stream of flames and re-lighting the torch.

"The master is incommunicado," Ninjamon said quietly, as he continued forward.

"I see," Impmon whispered as he walked behind Ninjamon, slowly. "I could've refused to assist in this endeavor. Doesn't the fact that I'm here, helping, show that I am trying to fix what I did wrong?"

"They were your family, and you turned against them…" the shinobi snarled quietly as he walked.

"We weren't a family; we were under the claws of Mr. Holier than Thou. I saw a chance to get myself free from under him and I took it, who cares if most of the others sided with the losing side; a side, I might add, that turned against us!" Impmon retorted loudly. The little, lavender gremlin glared at the ground, the frost covered earth glistened a soft, sherbet-orange in the torchlight. "And now you're resurrecting the ones that did this to your master and me! How's that any different than my original betrayal!?"

"Very different, they will be the agents of the master's freedom and with his powers maybe he can bring back those that were lost," Ninjamon retorted. Ninjamon moved to turn and was about to start another thought but he stopped. The shinobi winced and dropped forward to his knee. "Darn it…"

The ninja glowed and split into two equal halves. Two, identical digimon were kneeling on the ground. Their lavender wings were cowed. The left digimon held up the torch. His floppy triangular ears were pressed angrily against his head. The digimon spun around glared at Impmon.

"What? Not my fault your Wonder Twin powers deactivated…" snorted the lavender imp as he glared down at the lesser demon.

The purple face and body of the little digimon tensed. Impmon lips thinned, the DemiMamon had been staying in their Ninjamon form for so long he'd forgotten how much they looked like him, save for being smaller, having wings, the leather sweat suits and the extra baby fat around their midsections the DemiMamon, Pal and Pul, were nearly copies of him when he was younger.

"You made me lose synch with Pal!" snorted the little, winged demon.

"Look, just because you got all hissy doesn't…" Impmon started to retort but he noticed that the second of the pair of twins was gone. "Where is Pal?"

"Darn it, he went off on his own," Impmon's confronter snorted as he spun around and flapped his tiny wings and took to the air carrying the torch in one hand and a small scepter in the other. "Pal, don't run off!"

"Oi, wait for me! Pul, come on, not so fast!" grumbled Impmon as he ran after the remaining twin.

Impmon felt the ground slowly even out of its downward slope. The light of Pul's torch flickered at the edge of the shadows. Impmon skid to a stop, a breath of air brushed across his face. Pul's torch disappeared as a second puff of air swept past Impmon's face, making the white fur of his face mask bristle. Surprisingly the cave didn't go blacker than pitch rather an ambient glow danced gently up ahead. It was a soft, blue color, the color of wet glacial ice, except this had a misty hint to it that grayed and diffused the azure color.

Impmon ran forward. Neither twin had screamed yet, which wasn't necessarily good, but wasn't yet alarming either. The ground got colder along with the air, Impmon's breath condensed slightly in the air hanging as cloudy puffs in front of his mouth. A huge arch appeared at the end of the tunnel he was in. The light seemed to flow in from the chamber beyond the arch, like the water of a lazy river. Impmon slid, trying to stop, but the earth had gotten considerably icier and he couldn't get any traction. He slid to a stop behind the twin digimon he had been chasing. They were hovering in the air, looking forward.

Impmon looked around. The chamber was relatively large, at least the size of an auditorium. Ice stalactites pointed down from the ceiling. Here and there an icy stalagmite would stab upwards from the floor. The icy auditorium was held up by long pylons of ice formed where stalactites and stalagmites fused together leaving a single pillar of ice spanning the space between the earth to the ceiling.

He finally turned and looked at what it was the two DemiMamon were interested in. It was an altar made of ice. A set of four steps led to a dais with a huge rectangular box on top of it, all crafted from ice. A pair of swords was stuck onto the top of the altar. The twins glided forward. Impmon meander behind them looking up to the ceilings where the stalactites hung. As they drew closer Impmon could see that the two swords were nearly identical, though slightly different. They were both sabers, with wide, curved blades. Their hilts were golden. The blade of the left sword was engraved with golden script of ancient kanji. The blade of the right sword had gemstones of various colors embedded into it.

"These are the Fangs of Nidhogg," whispered Pal with a grin as he glided to the first step. "The twin swords, Kopyakutta and Pastu."

"Who trespasses on this place?" A voice rang out from all directions, echoing off the icy walls of the ice chamber and bouncing and rebounding off of the stalagmites and stalactites.

Impmon grumbled quietly and crossed his arms, "Every time there has to be someone to protect these things, couldn't just this once we wouldn't have to go through this…"

A pair of blue eyes flared up in front of the swords. The swords faded from view as a shadow swam over them. It was a lithe creature, with an elliptical head that was longer up and down than sideways. Its ears twitched fervently. The bushy tail of the digimon swept back and forth, the soft silvery fur swishing softly in the cold air. Blue arm guards covered its silver forelimbs and the claws of its three-digited hand closed together into a fist. The other hand gently clenched a walking stick. Yin-yang insignias covered its thighs.

"The protector of these relics," said Pul quietly as he lifted his scepter and pointed it at the vulpine digimon. The silver fox digimon didn't flinch. Its blue eyes gazed blankly downward in Impmon's and the DemiMamons' general direction, "is an old, decrepit, blind, Renamon. She's half dead just look at her, all gray and thin."

"This may be a foe even you could defeat, Impmon," giggled Pal loudly. His body shuttered with laughter.

Impmon clenched his fists angrily as his cheeks turned red. The memories of his quick defeat by Monodramon to leap into mind. His gloved fingers unclenched slowly and he glared up at the fox.

"Even I have standards," snorted Impmon as he turned his back. "Attacking that thing would be far too cruel even for me."

"Fine then I will!" snarled Pul loudly. He glared forward and swung his scepter around in the air. The golden ball at the end of the wooden club glowed, sparking black energy, "Petit Nightmare!"

A bolt of black lightning fired forward. It zigged and zagged through the air as the energy followed a trail of polarizing ions it was creating in front of itself. The dark bolt snapped forward and closed in on the old, bipedal vixen. A single, flash of movement and the black lightning was sent cascading in a totally different direction than its original trajectory to poof into nothing in the distance. The fox stood in a stern stance, its staff held in the opposite hand that it had previously been clenched. The staff was held out with the arm's full extension. The blank, blue eyes glared down, meeting Pul's eyes.

"Blind, yes," The fox took put her foot on the first step down from the dais. "Old, yes," she took another step down in a confident unafraid manner, her blind gaze burning into Pul's eyes with a blue flame. "But decrepit?" She took another step down, "Half dead?" The fox was now on the final step, a mere arms length away from Pul. "No…I think not."

There was a flash of movement so fast that even if she'd had slowed it down, Impmon wasn't sure if he'd have seen it, in fact he wasn't sure anything had happened until after Pul crashed behind him like a lump of dropped butter. Pal gulped loudly as he looked at the fox. He trembled and then clenched his clawed hand around his own scepter.

"Pe…" was the only syllable Pal got out before he was sent sprawling onto the icy earth.

"Leave this place," snorted the fox as she turned her back to them.

"We need those swords!" shouted Impmon loudly.

The fox stopped. She didn't incline her head, she didn't turn. "Strange for you to want the devices to free those that turned you into what you are, Impmon…Or should I say Beelzemon? Why are you trying to free those that killed your family?"

"You wouldn't understand," growled Impmon as he snapped his fingers. "I was a coward then, but this time…" The little gremlin swept his hands forward. Hundreds of maroon flames shot forward and striking nothing but air.

"This time you're impotent," The fox's voice said from behind Impmon. The fox released a chuckle, "just like you, full of excuses…"

Impmon swung around and got a fist in the gut, sending him rolling into the steps, his back crackling against the ice. He huffed and puffed trying to retrieve his breath, as the air froze his throat and lungs making them ache with each new inhale.

"I have to do this!" Impmon heaved loudly thrusting himself forward. Renamon disappeared as Impmon tackled through her fading image.

"You are outmatched, imp," The fox said, this time, reappearing at the top of the stairs. She opened her three fingered hand. A light shimmered in her palm. "Fox Leaf Arrowhead."

Impmon dove, sprawling across the earth. He slid on his belly across the ice as the ground behind him exploded with glowing bursts of sharpened leaves. The fox's head turned following Impmon as he slid.

"Bada Boom!" snarled Impmon as he whipped his hand upward tossing a burst of maroon flame at the fox. Renamon tilted her head to the left slightly and the burst of flame slipped past her harmlessly. Impmon clenched his fists. "How is it you can do that!?"

"Sometimes those who can see are the blindest of all," replied the fox calmly. "Leave this place…"

"No! Not without those swords!" shouted Impmon in reply. He clenched his fists and growled loudly straining every fiber of his being. Swirls of darkness rose around him. "Infernal…."

Impmon choked as he was lifted off the ground by Renamon. The fox held the little gremlin above her head, her claws tightly pressed against the sides of his throat.

"You will leave here…" Renamon said with a growl, thrusting Impmon upward and shaking him.

"Repetitive...aren't you?" gasped Impmon as the fox's grip pressed against his windpipe. He extended a finger. Renamon's walking stick rose and pressed against Impmon's finger.

"Don't be stupid," Renamon whispered quietly.

The fox narrowed her eyes, turned her head and threw Impmon to the ground, leaping backward. The gremlin grunted as his backside struck the floor. Three flickers of light snapped his attention from the soreness of his bum. Impmon scrambled backward as three steel throwing stars embedded themselves in the ground in front of him.

"So the Wonder Twins got together," Impmon grunted as he looked around for Ninjamon. Renamon swept past him leaping over his head. Impmon gritted his teeth. "Don't ignore me! Bada Boom!" Fireballs chased after the fox as she bounded off. The flames fizzled to nothing before even reaching the fox. Impmon clenched his fists and started to punch the ground. "Stop ignoring me! Stop it!"

He tried to ignore the sounds of the fighting that was jumping sporadically throughout the cavern. The scuffling came closer and he could make out the shadows of the lithe Renamon dodging and countering strikes from a smaller, rounder Ninjamon. The two disappeared suddenly, only to reappear near the dais. The silver fox leapt backward and swung her walking stick up as Ninjamon unleashed a wave of shurikens. The throwing stars imbedded in the fox's staff and the fox twisted and swung the walking stick forward, dislodging the shurikens and sending back to their thrower. Ninjamon scrambled to unsheathe his sword and block the counter, sending the shurikens harmlessly into the earth.

Ninjamon leapt forward, his sword drawn. Renamon jumped up and over the ninja, landing behind him whilst reaching back and grabbing him by the knot that held his hood over his head. The fox yanked and flung Ninjamon down the steps onto the cold floor of the cave.

Ninjamon growled, glaring up at the fox as she sat down on the dais. "Even when we're Ninjamon we're having a hard time keeping up with her…it's like she can read our thoughts."

Impmon looked at the fox and watched as the vixen twitched her ears and gently curled them back and forth like radar dishes. A breath of wind swept across her, shifting her fur from right to left, the fox's right arm's muscles slightly twitched in reflex.

The little imp smirked, "I know how she's doing it…"

Impmon snapped his fingers and Renamon's head snapped upward and glared down in Impmon's general direction. Impmon fanned his fingers out and a multitude of small fireballs popped into existence. Impmon strained and sent them flying in different directions. He then crossed his arms forward. The fireballs swirled around Renamon, without hitting. The fox blinked and tilted her head and twisted it around. Impmon chuckled and made the fireballs go faster. This caused the air currents around the fox to change. Renamon got to her feet and took a defensive stance, raising her cane over her chest and turning slowly in her spot. Her head moved around trying to pinpoint the movements.

"What are you doing?" hissed Ninjamon quietly.

"Disrupting the wind around her and making as much noise as possible," whispered Impmon. "She's been listening for our attacks and sensing the wind distortions that they create, but doing this I've cloaked everything in 'sensory noise'. You're free to strike…She'll know you're coming but she'll be less likely to pinpoint where you're coming from…"

"See you finally are useful," smirked Ninjamon as he leapt forward and bounded up the stairs.

He flicked his hand forward and released a rain of shurikens. Renamon twisted around and lifted her walking stick, but as Impmon predicted could only catch a few of the stars on the gnarled rod. The rest sliced through her shoulders and arms. The fox growled as she dropped to her knees. She lifted her hand.

"Fox Leaf Arrowhead!" A stream of golden arrowheads smashed through the twisting globe of fireballs. Renamon leapt forward escaping the maroon flames.

"No you don't!" growled Impmon as he swung his hand following Renamon's movements.

The fireballs were like a horde of angry wasps spinning and swarming around the fox. Renamon growled as she tried to swat them away. The fireballs spiraled around her as she ran across the icy ground. Ninjamon was giving quick pursuit. He chucked shurikens at the silver vixen. Many of them were evaded but some struck her. Two or three stuck in the middle of her back, another between her shoulder blades. Many more sliced past her shoulders, arms and legs cutting her flesh. One embedded itself into Renamon's thigh. The fox fell forward, crashing to the earth and sliding forward on her momentum, finally being stopped by a thick stalagmite. The old fox pulled the shuriken out of her thigh and rolled over. She slid up against the stalagmite. Flames swirled around her and she turned her head frantically back and forth.

Ninjamon was running towards her his sword drawn and pointed at her. The fox was still too disoriented to notice the oncoming doom. Impmon gulped slightly as he watched the blade closing in.

"Stop!" Impmon shouted. Ninjamon slid and leapt backward.

The spherical shinobi glared at the lavender imp, "Why!?"

Impmon walked up the dais and to the altar. His red gloved hand curled around one of the jeweled sabers and pulled it up. Impmon narrowed his green eyes and walked down the stairs. He walked past Ninjamon and towards the spinning vortex of flames where Renamon was lying. He stood several feet from the fox and lifted the blade.

"The sword…Kopyakutta," whispered Impmon quietly as looked at the shadow of Renamon. Impmon charged forward and with a clean swipe sliced through the flames. The dust of the vixen's data flowed with the sword and one of the jewels on the sword's surface came to life, glowing with a sharp red color. Impmon turned his head and glared at Ninjamon, "I…am not impotent…"

"Right…" Ninjamon snorted as he turned and started walking towards the dais. "Whatever, let's get ready," Ninjamon said as he walked toward the dais. "This plan will be wonderful. Use their own power against them, almost too perfect."

888

"Are you sure?" Iori looked up at the other children as they turned toward the computer screen; the digi-port program already running. "This is a trap…"

"Yeah, yeah," Daisuke replied waving a gloved hand as he lifted his D-3. "That's the point; we're going to counter-trap them. They can't spring anything on us that Silphymon and Paildramon can't handle…"

"Ah…what about Black WarGreymon?" Iori returned obstinately. Daisuke stopped in mid-sentence and blinked several times. Iori narrowed his hazel eyes and looked at the others, "or what if they have some way of controlling digimental Ultimates, like Arukenimon controlled Stingmon?"

"I hadn't thought…" Daisuke said, splutteringly.

"No, you didn't," Iori said with a rough snort. He crossed his arms, "That's the problem; we seem to be underestimating these digimon. Just because Impmon's a Rookie and Ninjamon is a weak Champion digimon we've just been putting them off as a pair of nuisances…We haven't been planning or anything! Nor have we been looking to find out who's behind these guys; they're stealing the artifacts for a reason, for someone."

"Izzy's been trying to contact Gennai," Miyako stated defensively. "He's just not found him. Izzy said it's odd for Gennai to ignore him so much…"

The other children turned and looked at the pink haired girl.

"Izzy?" Hikari said. The brunette girl had a coy 'tell me later' smile on her face.

"That's pretty informal," Takeru stated bluntly. The blonde smiled innocuously at Daisuke. The brown haired goggle head blinked and then a coy smile of realization spread across his lips.

"There's nothing wrong with it, we're both middle-schoolers! It's not uncommon that I'd use his nickname!" the girl shouted excitedly as she looked at her older friends. Her glasses became uneven on her nose as she ranted. "It's not like we're sneaking around behind your backs and dating or anything! He's like my mentor, he's an upper classman and and and…he's way too…too…" Miyako waved her hands in the air as if she was trying to drag words into her brain, "He's just too…Izzy for me! Yeah..."

"She's getting defensive," Daisuke chimed as he poked the digimon on his shoulder, a plush, blue and white, dragon-like creature, in the belly. "You know what that means!"

The digimon giggled eagerly. Soon enough the blue digimon, a small dumpling with frilly ears and a pink ball of feathers were singing, "Miyako and Koushiro sitting in a tree…K. I. S…."

"If you finish that song, it'll be the last song you ever sing!" Miyako snapped loudly. The three digimon gulped loudly and zipped their mouths shut. Daisuke was hiding behind Hikari. The brunette girl giggled quietly putting her hand quickly over her mouth as Miyako's sharp brown eyes burned in her direction.

"I don't see the big deal," Salamon stated matter-of-factly. The puppy-kitten padded on the tiled floor of the computer lab. "If she likes him, she likes him. It's not like it's the end of the world."

"You never know," Patamon said as he flapped his bat ears. The brown guinea pig hovered next to his blonde partner. "With humans this sort of thing always seems to be a matter of life and death…like I overheard these two girls talking about TK and Ka…"

Takeru snapped his hand over the flying guinea pig's mouth and pressed it against his chest. Hikari arched an eyebrow in Takeru's direction. Takeru scratched the back of his white, sailors' hat, furrowing his brows as he blushed, "I really don't know where people get these silly ideas…I mean come on…"

Iori fumed quietly and sat down in a chair. A weight plopped in his lap and he looked down. It was the dumpling with frilled ears.

"What's wrong, Iori?" asked the digimon quietly as it looked up at him worriedly.

"It's nothing Upamon," replied Iori as he clenched his fists into his jeans. He glared at the green and white tile on the floor trying to push the anger down.

"You shouldn't hide your feelings, Iori," replied the digimon as it snuggled close to him.

"It's kind of obvious it doesn't matter what my feeling on anything are here," Iori grunted quietly to himself as his hazel eyes ground into the green and white linoleum tiling of the computer room floor.

"Well, let's go," Daisuke shouted as he lifted his D-3. "Ken's probably wondering where we got to." The older children huddled close to the computer screen. Daisuke pointed the D-3 at the computer screen. Iori got up, holding Upamon in his arms and filed behind the older children, half heartedly. Daisuke took a deep breath, "Digi-port Open!"

The light flashed brightly and a few seconds later Iori was in a long, heavy, blue coat. Armadillomon was standing next to him, his four legs hidden in knee deep snow. Daisuke was grunting and growling again, as he rubbed his arms. The other children were dressed in winter clothing.

"The winter area again?" Takeru said as he walked around, his puffy white vest coat hugged his body. "These were the right coordinates, right?"

"Yep," The children turned. Ken was standing there. He was wearing a lavender jumper with a dark blue scarf. Wormmon was snuggled in his arms. "There's a cave a few meters this way…just like they said."

"I don't like this," Wormmon mumbled from behind Ken's arm. "Why are they telling us?"

"It's a trap," Iori stated sternly. He stuffed his hands into his jacket and walked forward, Armadillomon loping through the snow after him. "I think we should make them come to us."

"We don't know what they've stolen," Ken replied quietly. He turned and looked off into the distance. "Everything they've stolen so far has had some strange power…or ability. This one could be the one that gives them some super power…we can't just let them have it." Ken started to walk, slowly. He pointed forward to a hill. "The cave is this way."

"If it was something that gave them enough power to defeat us, they'd definitely bring us here," Iori said quietly walking alongside of Ken.

The others followed the two boys listening to them as they talked.

"But why bring us to the cave, they told us last time that they just want our digimon gone," whispered Ken quietly as he rubbed his chin, "I just don't get it. Why tell us that they are planning something."

Ken stopped in front of a large hole that descended into the center of a large, icy foothill. The stones surrounding the opening were covered in orange and green lichen. Ice and snow overhung the cavern. The cavern was a little more than a one and a half times as tall as Ken. Iori peered in annoyance into the darkness of the hole.

"This is fishy," Iori grumbled rubbing is mottled brown hair. "I don't like this."

"It sure is dark in there," announced Veemon loudly as he peered into the cavern. "Are we going in, Daisuke?"

The other children looked back at the brown haired boy in his flame colored jacket. The boy pressed his fingers together twitching his lips back and forth as he thought.

"If the hoodlums have something waiting for us in this murkiness, maybe we should digivolve," said Hawkmon regally. The red, hawk leaned forward, poking his hooked beak into the cave.

"The cavern's too small," Salamon said as she walked up to the edge and surveyed the height. "I mean I could fit as Gatomon but do you really think Ankylomon or ExVeemon or Angemon could fit? Even Stingmon would have to crawl on his hands and knees to make it in."

"We could Armor digivolve," Patamon said as he glided up to the upper border of the cave's opening. "Pegasusmon could easily fit inside this. In fact we all could, even Digmon."

"Are you suggesting Digmon's fat!?" Armadillomon asked defensively.

"Just big boned," Iori said patting the golden shelled armadillo on the head.

"How can he be big boned? Digmon's an insect…they don't have…" Daisuke started to point out but Takeru and Hikari slapped their hands over the brunette boy's mouth.

Iori frowned and straightened up. "I still don't like this. Why are we going down a cave when it's an obvious trap?"

"I already told you; we're counter-trapping them," Daisuke replied sharply as he lifted his D-3. "We're not going to get anywhere if we scare every time something 'feels' wrong."

"But…" Iori pursed his lips in annoyance.

"He's right," Ken said quietly, putting his hand on Iori's shoulder. "We can't very well fix things if we're too worried about traps to investigate."

Iori sighed in annoyance and stood back as Daisuke energized the Digimental of Friendship. Veemon quickly donned the black colored armor that the digimental sent to him, becoming a muscular, four-legged dragon. Blue electricity snapped across the lightning bolt shaped spikes that jutted off of the black, armored dragon's shoulders. Hikari and Takeru were next and Iori let his hand grasp his D-3, his fingers played over the device's surface as Salamon and Patamon morphed into a white sphinx with gold lined armor and a golden-orange winged horse, respectively. Miyako was fiddling with her D-3 trying to decide with digimental to use. She fussed quietly tilting her head back and forth and swishing her cheeks with the tilt of her head. She scratched her and finally Hawkmon, exasperated by the indecision, suggested firmly to Miyako that she should use the Digimental of Sincerity. The pink haired girl nodded quickly and called up the digimental. Hawkmon was engulfed by the light of the digimental. His form was draped with long, beige robes as his legs turned into coiled vines and his taloned feet changed configuration into three pronged shuriken-like feet. His wings turned into springy vines that ended in similar shuriken hands and his masked face glowed with two golden eyes.

Ken smiled, almost at the edge of a light giggle at Miyako's predicament before Hawkmon's suggestion, and lifted his D-3. "Digi-armor energize!"

Iori watched as Wormmon went through a similar process the others had. The pink like of the Digimental of Kindness enfolded the caterpillar-like Wormmon. A pair of long pink antenna swept out of the light, their ends armed with heart-shaped arrowheads. Wormmon's new form was much cuter than that of his Rookie form. It was plush with fuzzy, white fur and rubbery, pink armor that covered his head, hands and feet. A rubbery, pink bowtie was strapped to the back of the cute impish digimon. It giggled like a small child with the high-pitched voice of a fairy or leprechaun.

Everyone turned and looked at Iori. He blushed slightly at the attention and looked down at the golden digivice that he was fondling in his hand. His partner looked up at him with big, green eyes.

"Well, Iori, are we gonna go, too?" asked the plate-armored armadillo innocently in his drawling tone.

"Yes," Iori said in defeat as he looked from one of his friends to the next, and then at their partner digimon. He lifted his D-3. He sighed, quietly. "Digi-armor…energize."

Armadillomon glowed as the Digimental of Knowledge supplemented his strength. Armadillomon grew into an insect. Tiny, spriggy antenna popped out of his armored, conical head. Wing guards grew over the digimon's back covering a pair of mostly vestigial wings. Two pairs of arms extended forward, one was smaller; the larger pair had three drills on its hand. The digimon's face was dominated by a drill-like snout. Iori walked forward and the insect lifted him up onto its head.

"Ok, guys, let's go, but be careful," Ken called out as he and his pixie-like partner walked toward the entrance of the cave. "We don't know what kind of trap is up ahead…"

"How can we be careful if we can't see," Iori replied sharply from his perch on top of Digmon.

"Well," The impish digimon next to Ken started. It extended one of its rubber covered fingers and a small mote of rose light enveloped the tip of the digit. "I can always light the path…"

"Good one, Puttimon," Daisuke chirped as he patted the little digimon on the head and climbed onto Raidramon.

The black and blue dragon walked, carrying the goggle wearing boy. Ken and Puttimon followed Daisuke and Raidramon. Takeru and Hikari followed Ken and Daisuke. Miyako and Shurimon moved toward the entrance. Miyako looked at the opening in the hill and then looked at Shurimon. She tightened the stocking hat she had on her head and turned to Iori.

"Are you guys ready?" Miyako said with a smile.

"I suspect so," Iori said with a frown. "I still think this is a bad idea. We should've let them go…"

Miyako turned her head and put her hands on her hips, "Well, if you're going you better hurry, Puttimon's light is starting to fade."

Iori sighed and told Digmon to go in after Miyako and Shurimon had slipped into the shadows of the cave. Digmon walked forward in his usual, slightly awkward kangaroo walk, which came off as half stroll and half hop. The cavern ceiling gave only a precious few centimeters of open space between Iori's head and the rock. He slid down slightly on Digmon's back to avoid being bludgeoned to death by the ceiling during Digmon's undulating gait.

The others were a couple of meters ahead of them. Shurimon's shadow was bathed in diluted, rosy light from Puttimon's finger-torch. The ground scritched and scratched as Digmon's feet shifted the gravelly debris. The air seemed to cool slightly and the walls ahead of them glistened with a frosty pink light.

"The water seeping through the soil and rock must freeze when it hits the air…" murmured Iori as he made his limited observations. "Since this is the arctic area maybe this is some kind of permafrost…"

"It's definitely cold enough," grunted Digmon. "I just hope that this cave doesn't get any smaller. It's a bit of a tight squeeze."

"I wonder if you'll be able to drill through this…" Iori whispered as he laid his head against Digmon's smooth exoskeleton. "I know they have problems drilling through the permafrost in Siberia…or at least that's what Miyako has said…"

"Don't worry, Iori, I can dig through anything," said the drill wielding insect with a confident voice. Digmon skidded slightly as the ground sloped downward. The bug stuck one of his drills into the wall of the cavern and dug his clawed feet into the ground. "Woah…bit of a slick spot there."

Iori's fingers clenched a little at the hinges between the wing covers and Digmon's body. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," Digmon assured as he unstuck himself from the cavern wall and continued forward, although at a much more cautious pace. "The others are getting really far ahead."

"We should be fine…unless the cave splits," Iori whispered as he strained his eyes to catch the increasingly distant, dancing, pink bauble that was Puttimon's finger light.

"Even if the cave splits, I'll just dig us out…" chuckled Digmon as he gently loped forward. Digmon continued to chuckle even more. "I guess we're the safest pair of them all…if we get lost or caved in we can just buzz right to the surface…"

"We'd go after the others first," whispered Iori, "if our exit is blocked theirs' will be too. I couldn't leave them there…"

"Of course not," Digmon said as if it was something that was so obvious it didn't need stating. "I don't think anyone would think that you'd run out on them."

Iori didn't respond, rather he just made a little, humming grunt. Iori's eyes squinted into the walls of darkness that were slowly coalescing around them. The single pinprick of pink suddenly slipped off to the left. Iori's fingers dug between the plates of Digmon's exoskeleton. He never had told anyone but he really didn't like the dark, he could handle it usually but times like this, where the darkness was so complete that your eyes faked blobs of color to try and rationalize the darkness, he felt dizzy and disoriented.

"Digmon…" Iori whispered as soon as Digmon stopped.

"Don't worry, Iori," whispered Digmon quietly. "I can still smell them…and my eyes are better accustomed to the darkness, I'm not lost…I'm just trying to decide whether or not we should dig through the rock and try and catch up to them…"

"We better keep going forward," Iori whispered. He took a deep, cold breath. The moist, stagnant air chilled his throat. "If we try to drill through we could miss them or cause a cave in."

"That's what I was thinking too," Digmon said quietly as he continued his loping gait. Iori shivered quietly, his eyes darting uselessly left and right trying to find the cave walls, ceiling and floor, trying to orient himself. Digmon shifted slightly, evidently turning his head, because his voice sounded louder when he spoke. "Are you cold, Iori?"

"No…well…" Iori's voice staggered slightly as he took another breath. "I don't like this…I don't like not knowing where we are…or anything."

"It is pretty dark in here," replied Digmon as he loped forward. The digimon stopped and turned his body. "It's strange that the temperature doesn't get warmer the deeper we go…usually the earth will warm after a meter or so...but then again this is the Digital World."

Iori tried to smile slightly at Digmon's little jibe at the inconsistencies of the Digital World, his home. Digmon continued forward. It was still dark and cold. Even though Iori couldn't see the steam his breath was creating; he knew it was there.

"Digmon, do you know anything about what these things are that Ninjamon and Impmon are stealing?" Iori asked quietly into the ear of the beetle.

"Not really, though they seem to be familiar…" Digmon replied as he hopped forward. "Obviously they're very important."

"But why would Gennai all of a sudden disappear? And if they were so important, why haven't any of the Harmonious Ones tried to stop them from being stolen?" Iori asked trying to work it out.

"Maybe they don't know," replied Digmon as he stopped and tilted his head. "Is it me or is it getting lighter?"

Iori blinked and looked up. The walls seemed to glow slightly. It was a gentle blue color that was so faint that only those that had just experienced the color depravation that existed a few meters back could pick up the shift.

"It's getting lighter; there must be a lighted chamber up ahead…" Iori said with half a cheer. Digmon continued forward, moving slowly forward. Iori narrowed his eyes slightly, "Wait; how could the Harmonious Ones not know?"

"They aren't eternal, Iori," replied Digmon quietly as he moved forward. "There were others before them…so it's not unreasonable to believe that these artifacts predate the Harmonious Ones."

Digmon stopped. There was a loud scream, it sounded like Miyako. Digmon turned his head and looked back at Iori.

"Digmon, hurry," Iori growled. He frowned, "I knew it was a trap…"

Digmon jabbed his drill hands into the ground and plunged his snout in to the frozen rock. Chunks of rock and earth flew from the spinning drills as they pushed through the cavern floor. The ground melted away from them as they pushed forward. Digmon was always faster underground than above ground. Iori just hoped that the trap that his friends walked into wasn't something they couldn't handle.

888

They had finally entered a large ice chamber. It was like an underground amphitheater made of ice. A blue light seemed to be emitted from the ice itself. Stalagmites and stalactites of frozen water pointed up and down and some grew together into icy columns.

It was a fast movement, something none of them had noticed right away. Shurimon was the first affected. Miyako screamed as Shurimon dropped to one knee. A slicing blow across the botanical ninja caused him to stumble backward. Then Puttimon and Flamedramon were struck. Lastly Pegasusmon and Nefertimon were hit by a sweeping blow that sliced across them so fast that all of them failed to see anything but a wisp of movement. The bobbing shadow bounded toward a dais. The children narrowed their eyes as the saw the lavender imp sitting at the steps of the dais leaning on the hilt of a saber. The bobbing shadow settled next to the imp and glowed splitting into two digimon. They looked like smaller, winged versions of the imp. They had floppy, triangular ears and rounded purple bodies with white faces. The winged imp on the left held up a glowing saber nearly identical to the one Impmon was leaning on, save for the jewels on the blade of the winged imps' saber.

"So what did you want!?" shouted Daisuke and Raidramon stepped forward. "You called us here, so what?"

"Just wanted to show you our new toys," chuckled the wingless imp as he stood up.

"So what you got a couple of swords," Daisuke snorted loudly, glaring at the three Rookie digimon.

"Oh, we have more than that," giggled the only swordless, winged imp. "Pul, isn't that true?"

"Yes, Pal, it is," whispered the sword bearing, winged imp, who evidently was Pul, or at least that was how Daisuke surmised it. 'Pul' gave 'Pal', the swordless imp, a sidelong smile. "They don't suspect a thing…"

"Oh, come on, show us your Dark Digivolved digimon so we can clean its clock," Daisuke snarled loudly.

"Daisuke…" Ken whispered, "Something's not right…"

"I don't sense any other digimon's presence here…" Puttimon said as he looked around.

"I don't smell anything," concurred Raidramon, with a growl.

"Oh, don't worry," Pul laughed, quietly. He walked over to the imp. "Impmon, let's show them the power of Kopyakutta and Pastu the swords that make up the Fangs of Nidhogg!"

Pul slid the glowing jewels of his saber against the sword that Impmon held. Energy jumped between the two blades as the crossed.

Pal fluttered in front of the sparking blade and held up a scroll, "Kopyakutta the sword of replication capable of drawing out a digimon's digital DNA and copying it over and over again." Pal nodded and glided out of the way of Impmon as the small digimon swung the sword he'd been leaning on forward. Six spheres flew in front of the children and touched down on the ground, spinning quietly. Digital code was swirling over the spheres' surfaces. Pal coughed quietly and unfurled the scroll again, "Pastu the sword of recombination, is capable of taking any two sets of digital DNA and pasting them together into endless forms."

The children gulped as the six spheres turned into actual forms. The first sphere turned into a white snake with white, feathered wings.

"Meet, Quetzelmon! Protector of the ancients, this dragon god digimon can fossilize you with his freezing wave!" Pal shouted as he read the scroll. The serpent curled into the air swinging a long, axe-like tail behind it.

"This speed racer is one of the fastest beings in the Digital World, I present to you Rinkmon!" The second sphere turned into a very lithe figure. It was covered in skintight, blue armor. Lightning bolt decals slicked back from the blue gloves that it wore.

Pal smiled and red the next line on the scroll he held in his hands. The third sphere turned into a gray goat with curved, golden horns and giant, silver collar that held a large bell. "One hit from this goat digimon's bell will cause his enemies to be stunned into submission, allow me to present Oryxmon!"

"This hopping boxer may float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, but he's not a bug, he's the magnificent marsupial marvel, Kangaroomon!" Pal pointed the scroll at the fourth sphere. The ball of data turned into a large kangaroo with large, red boxing gloves and a head similar to that of Veemon, save for the silver face mask that covered its eyes.

"This guy is one mean desperado, his prickly fists match his prickly nature, allow me to provide for your displeasure, Ponchomon!" The fifth figure turned into a strange combination of a Togemon with a Bakemon. It wore a beige poncho and had red gloves, but neither of those topped the huge, red and brown, floppy sombrero it had on its head.

"A blast from the past, this prehistoric digimon, slices, dices and juliennes, his bladed back has been used to cut off the heads of cruel kings and queens of the digital world, yes, that dino with the disposition to cut you to tiny bits…STEGOMON!" The last sphere turned into a large, green stegosaur, complete with blade edged spine plates and spiked tail.

"Not expecting to be facing your own strength huh?" giggled Pul quietly as he looked at the shocked expressions on the children's face.

"We're not afraid!" Daisuke shouted, shaking his head, "These guys are just cheap copies!"

"Oh, really," Pul snorted as he lifted his sword. He swept it forward. "ATTACK!"

The six newly formed digimon charged forward. The Togemon-Bakemon creature swept its poncho forward releasing a swarm of orange bats. Pegasusmon charged forward and fired quills from his golden-yellow mane and then took off into the air above the ghostly cactus's head. The winged snake twisted forward as Nefertimon fired bolts of her Cat's Eye Beam at its red and white striped body. Puttimon was weaving back and forth as the kangaroo digimon swung flaming fists at the little pixie digimon. Raidramon snarled as the goat digimon crashed its horns into his side. The black armored dragon grunted as he skidded across the ice. He slid to a stop only to be struck by multiple needles from the stegosaur digimon. Rinkmon zipped through the fray of other digimon and shoulder blocked Shurimon into a stalagmite.

The digi-destined counterattack flashed back at the attackers. Raidramon released a burst of red and blue lightning. Oryxmon leapt out of the lightning bolts' way letting the electrical attack slam into Stegomon. The hefty, green, armored digimon grunted as his body tensed absorbing the attack. Puttimon jetted forward whipping his heart-tipped antennae forward like a cat-of-nine-tails. The target of the pink armored pixie, the beige-furred marsupial Kangaroomon, bounded backwards sweeping under and over the sweepings whips of pink rubber that made up Puttimon's antennae. Nefertimon navigated the inverted forest of stalactites chasing Quetzelmon. The white, armored amphitere twisted around and opened its mouth. A lavender bubble formed in the winged snake's mouth.

"Freezing Wave!" A pulse of lavender energy flew from the Aztec dragon's mouth and flooded the stalactites.

Nefertimon twisted and kicked off of the stalactites diving for the ground. A few of Nefertimon's feathers were jarred from the sphinx's white wings. The lavender wave curled around the feathers as they fluttered. The lavender energy focused around the feathers. Their soft surfaces quickly turned into hard, smooth limestone and the feathers dropped to the ground shattering.

Pegasusmon spread his wings and released a downpour of golden stars. His opponent, Ponchomon, swirled around and swept his poncho up, releasing dozens of orange bats that whirled and twirled into the oncoming torrent of falling stars. Pegasusmon narrowed his eyes as the bats flew suicide missions into the shower of stars neutralizing the attack. A shadow zipped between the stars. Pegasusmon reared back as the cactus ghost appeared in front of him his red gloved hand clenched into a fist, the prickly strap of spikes tensing across the botanical specter's knuckles.

"Tequila Knuckle!" The fist was driven into Pegasusmon's chest. The winged equine grunted as a second and then a third smashed into his golden chest armor.

"Equus Beam!" snarled Pegasusmon as his forehead exploded in emerald light.

Ponchomon dipped below the beam and swept around the back of Pegasusmon. The winged horse twisted around to be greeted by a mob of orange bats. Pegasusmon became unsteady in the air and started to fall with the bats latching onto his exposed skin and inflicting burning bites onto his flesh.

Pegasusmon crashed to the ground as Rinkmon sliced through the ice on his skates. The blue, lithe digimon zigzagged across the ice, frictionlessly zipping towards Shurimon. The vine-armed warrior swung his springy arms forward letting the shuriken hands on the end of them buzz through the air. Rinkmon leaned forward skating under the whirring shuriken as it buzzed past. Shurimon pulled his arm back but it was a useless act. Rinkmon clenched a fist and a ball of lightning wrapped around his clenched hand. Shurimon lurched upward as Rinkmon smashed his charged fist into Shurimon's sternum. Shurimon swung his other shuriken hand downward, but Rinkmon leapt backward and landed on the toes of his skates. The lightning bolt ribbons on his gloves glowed.

"Spinning Cutter!" Rinkmon started to spin on his toes and the ribbons cut through the air in a wide circle around his rotating body.

The faster Rinkmon's body went the larger the outer cutting ring got. Shurimon backpedaled as the streaks of light cut closer and closer. The plant digimon grabbed one of the huge shurikens that were attached to the back of beige robes and pulled it in front of him like a shield. The streaks of cutting, yellow light kicked against the shuriken shield as it cut large gashes in the throwing stars lavender surface.

"Thunder Blast!" roared Raidramon, loudly, and a burst of blue and lavender lightning struck the spinning Rinkmon, tossing the skater to the ground.

Shurimon grunted as the assault stopped. He looked up to Raidramon and winced as Oryxmon slammed his curved horns into Raidramon, propelling the black armored dragon into the air only to be slapped down by the spiked tail of Stegomon. Shurimon made a move forward only to be smacked to the earth himself by a blue blur.

"De-digivolve!" shouted Miyako, loudly, as she watched Shurimon assailed again.

Shurimon crashed against another stalagmite, and then was driven into the ground by Rinkmon. Nefertimon was smashed into the roof of the cavern chamber by Quetzelmon. Pegasusmon was catching, uppercut after uppercut from Ponchomon and was wobbly retreating away from the spectral cactus. Puttimon was punched in the face by one of Kangaroomon's fiery punches, and fell to the ground. The marsupial digimon lifted on its tail and its red boots glowed. Puttimon barely rolled out of the way as the kangaroo's boots dented the earth as he dropped a double kick into the spot where Puttimon had been laying.

"I…can't," groaned Shurimon as he skidded to the ground at Miyako's feet. "I've been trying…"

The two winged imps started to giggle. "You see, we figured you needed to be in Champion form to get your Ultimate level digimon! The swords didn't just take your data to make new digimon! As long as we have the original copy of the data on hand…You're stuck where you're at!"

"What!?" the children looked in horror as their digimon partners were smashed and bashed into rock and ice.

"Raidramon! Blast Oryxmon!" shouted Daisuke loudly as he caught the goat charging towards his partner.

"Thunder Blast!" A strike of blue lightning darted forward. The goat stopped and its bell shook.

"Mystic Bell!" the goat snorted and a resounding clang erupted from the bell. A shifting pulse of sound dispersed the lightning bolt and continued forward smashing into Raidramon. The dragon was tossed against a stalagmite and grunted, sliding down in a stupor.

Stegomon turned to Raidramon, and, moving like a tank, slowly charged forward. Stegomon's back plates shimmered and then blurred into action. The plates fired forward cutting through the air, humming towards Raidramon's stiffened body.

"Raidramon! Run!" Daisuke screamed as the blades cut closer and closer. Raidramon's body tensed and his clawed toes curled but he wasn't moving.

The earth shook. The children fell to the ground as the floor of the chamber cracked. A slab of rock erupted upward in front of Raidramon snagging the spinning plates. A golden insect grunted and thrust the rocks aside. The drills on the beetle's hands and face spun down.

"Sorry we're late, got a little lost…" Digmon apologized as he hopped out of the hole he just made. He turned his head and looked at Raidramon. "Are you ok?"

The dragon shook and dropped to his feet and shuddered. Raidramon shook his head and leapt backward as Oryxmon charged.

"Digmon, watch out!" Iori shouted from the beetle's back.

Digmon hopped backward on his cricket-like legs. Spikes drilled into the earth where Digmon had been standing. A very angry Stegomon was charging forward. Iori grabbed onto Digmon's sprig like antenna. Digmon crouched down and leapt upward and opened his wing golden wing covers and buzzed his wings elongating his leap and landing him behind the green armored dinosaur.

"How rude!" Digmon snorted.

"That guy seems a little big for you deal with," Iori said in his hushed voice.

The little, brown haired boy leapt from the insect's back. Digmon glowed and shrunk down to Armadillomon.

"WHAT!" Impmon spun around and glared at the winged imps. "Hurry up, zap Armadillomon! Hurry before…"

"Armadillomon digivolve to…" Armadillomon glowed brightly as he grew into a huge ankylosaur. He became an armored shelled dinosaur with rows of spikes that traced parallel to the dinosaur's spine. A mace-like tail swung behind his body. "Ankylomon!"

"Too late…" Impmon grumbled. He winced as he watched Stegomon and Ankylomon smash heads. Ankylomon pushed the lighter Stegomon backward.

The fight was far from over though. Even with Ankylomon, Puttimon was retreating from the nonstop punches of Kangaroomon. The pixie pointed and fired a beam of light into the chest of the marsupial, but Kangaroomon barely flinched. Puttimon stabbed forward with his antennae tips, forcing Kangaroomon to retreat for a moment. Kangaroomon pounced forward drilling Puttimon to the ground. Fists punched downward. Flames flashed backward from the fists.

"Puttimon!" yelped Ken loudly as he ran forward.

Kangaroomon grunted and leapt backward as Ken charged forward. The marsupial then swept forward and whipped his tail around smacking Ken in the chest and tossing him to the ground. Kangaroomon then leapt towards him retracting one its fists and letting the red glow of heat fill the glove. A flash of pink and Kangaroomon was yanked backward as Puttimon's antennae wrapped around pocketed belly of Kangaroomon. The marsupial was antenna suplexed over the back of Puttimon's heaving, bruised body. Ken heaved a relieved sigh but Kangaroomon was far from finished. The marsupial bounded to its feet and dove for Puttimon. The pink pixie staggered backward as a glowing fist smashed into the earth where Puttimon had been.

Raidramon was leaping in huge backward bounds as Oryxmon smashed through stalagmites and icy columns with his curved horns. A bolt of lightning sliced the air from Raidramon's yellow and black crooked horn. Oryxmon easily sidestepped the attempted strike.

"Stop retreating!" Daisuke barked loudly, "We have to push back!"

Shurimon dropped down in front of Daisuke and collapsed to one knee, "Easy for you to say when you're not the one getting beat to a pulp…"

The shinobi leapt away as a blue blur exploded in the spot where the beige robed ninja had been. Daisuke was thrown to the ground by the blast. Seconds later, the lithe, blue digimon was gone again, disappearing in a blue bolt of blurred speed.

Nefertimon smashed against the roof of the cavern as a twisting blast of Quetzelmon's Toltec Wind pressed against the white sphinx's ribs. The wind disappeared and the limp body of the sphinx started to tumble towards the icy earth below. Quetzelmon swept its serpentine body around and its mouth glowed with lavender light. A freezing wave shot towards Nefertimon's limp body.

"Mane Wind!" Pegasusmon dove between Nefertimon and the oncoming wave of fossilizing energy. Golden quills fired from the winged horse's yellow mane. Lavender shields formed around the needles turning them to stone.

Nefertimon twisted in the air, doing a sharp nose dive toward a small grove of stalagmites.

"Nefertimon!" Hikari's voice screeched. She watched in horror as her partner tumbled toward her impalement.

"I got you!" A pink bubble swept around Nefertimon.

Hikari blinked and turned her head. A bruised and battered Puttimon was straining to stand. His left hand grasped his right arm and his right arm was extended forward with one finger pointing upwards in line with Nefertimon. The bubble lowered slowly as Puttimon lowered his arm. He turned slightly and drew Nefertimon away from the spikes that rose from the ground, but he didn't quite get the white sphinx to the ground. Kangaroomon leapt up from behind him and slammed his back with his booted feet. Puttimon was propelled into the ground, leaving a frozen divot on the floor of the chamber.

Hikari ran over to her partner. The sphinx shuddered and slowly rose onto her forepaws. Her sterling white, masked face turned slowly to Hikari. The masked had a long, jagged crack between its eyes.

"Are…you ok?" Hikari whispered.

"I don't know how long I or any of us can take this," whispered Nefertimon in cold gasps. Her head lifted as did Hikari's. Pegasusmon was now ducking and weaving between Ponchomon's and Quetzelmon's combined attacks. "By now, I'd have de-digivolved…" The sphinx opened her white wings, "I have to go back up there and get Quetzelmon off of Pegasusmon; the snake is my duty…"

"He'll kill you," Hikari whispered.

"And if I don't help, he'll kill Pegasusmon," replied Nefertimon as she flapped her wings and took off.

"Tail Hammer!" Ankylomon's mace-like tail crashed into the ground not far from Hikari.

The girl jumped slightly. The sandy shelled ankylosaur charged forward as his opponent, Stegomon, walloped his side with its spiked tail. The green armored stegosaur growled and fired a round of its back plates at Ankylomon, but the Champion's heavy shell deflected the blades easily. Ankylomon's partner Iori ran about trying to get a good vantage point. Hikari could see the frown on the boy's face. There was a savage roar and Hikari turned her head and saw that Oryxmon had finally connected with his horns. Raidramon was sent sprawling across the icy ground. Daisuke was running towards his partner. Hikari turned back to Iori. The little boy had spun around and was grimacing at Daisuke.

"This isn't going to work!" shouted Iori loudly, waving his hands. "We can't win this if we keep this up!"

"What should we do, run away?" Daisuke shouted as he slid to a stop halfway to his destination.

"Wait, Daisuke, listen to Iori," Takeru shouted, loudly.

Hikari lifted her head. The blonde boy hadn't spoken much in the entire time since they had entered the cave. His eyes had been locked on Pegasusmon. The aerial battle was shifting back and forth as the four digimon dove in and out of the stalactites.

"We can't win if we're tied up in our little fights only moving for someone else when we can buy ourselves precious time," Iori called. "We have to fight together!"

The little boy ran leaving his partner to fend off Stegomon. Raidramon was dipping and weaving away from the gray goat that was charging at him with his curved horns smashing into raised rock. Puttimon was frantically trying to block the onslaught from Kangaroomon. Red boxing gloves flashed past the pixie's cheek.

Shurimon was in the worse shape of them all. The plant ninja staggered backward holding up a scuffed and slashed shuriken as a shield. Rinkmon was spinning again and the yellow stream of electrical energy was making glancing blows against Shurimon's shuriken.

Iori called the digi-destined together. The children knelt down in a huddle. The hazel eyed boy looked at each of the children.

"We're getting beat," hissed Daisuke quietly.

"Why aren't your digimon digivolving to their Champion forms?" Iori asked quickly.

"We can't," Hikari said. "When they created those copies they took digital DNA that allowed our digimon to de-digivolve and as long as they keep the original data our digimon can't de-digivolve."

"That winged demon holding the saber is the one with the original data," whispered Ken quietly as he looked up at the group of impish digimon giggling on the dais in the middle of the cavern chamber.

Iori furrowed his brow and though for a few minutes.

"I may have a plan, but we have to be able to communicate with our digimon directly," Iori whispered as he looked at the others.

"We…may have a way," Takeru said as he looked at his D-3. "When we first fought Myotismon, Kari and I could talk to Angemon and Angewomon through our digivice and tags and crests."

"But we don't have tags and crests," Ken replied in a sigh. "The D-3s are not the same as the original digivices…"

Miyako snatched her D-3 and brought it up to her lips, "Shurimon, can you hear me!?"

"Not now…Miyako," grunted Shurimon's voice from the D-3.

"Right," Iori nodded. A very slight smile started to play over his lips. He looked at the ground, "The plan's simple enough. We're facing six digimon, Oryxmon, Quetzelmon, Kangaroomon, Rinkmon, Stegomon and Ponchomon. Two of these digimon, Oryxmon and Quetzelmon, have the ability to render other digimon immobile. The trick is, to use that power to our advantage."

"But how do we get Oryxmon and Quetzelmon to use that ability on their fellow copies?" Ken said intrigued by the idea.

"It's to our advantage that we're in close quarters," Iori whispered as he looked around, "It won't be hard to set up a friendly fire situation. I think we should free up Nefertimon and Pegasusmon first, that should give us vital aerial support…"

"Pegasusmon," Takeru spoke into his D-3.

"Nefertimon," Hikari lifted her D-3 to her lips.

"We need you to get into Quetzelmon's and Ponchomon's crossfire," The two children said into the devices.

The two, winged, destined digimon swept around. Nefertimon fired a pink bolt of light at the cactus digimon that was tailing Pegasusmon. Pegasusmon fired an emerald beam at the winged snake that was chasing Nefertimon. The two copied digimon retreated backward as Pegasusmon and Nefertimon hovered in the air between them.

"Come on…" hissed Iori quietly, "Take the bait…"

Iori lips curled upward as he watched a lavender glow emanate from Quetzelmon's mouth. Hikari and Takeru were reassuring Pegasusmon and Nefertimon to hold steady. The other grappling digimon seemed to fade from the children's senses as they waited to see if their plan would work.

"Freezing Wave!" Quetzelmon snarled releasing the pulse of lavender energy.

"Cactus Bat!" Ponchomon swung around and a flood of orange bats flew forward.

"Wait…" Takeru whispered, "Wait…"

"Now!" Hikari shouted as she watched the wave of fossilizing energy started to close in on the two armored digimon.

Nefertimon and Pegasusmon dropped out of the way of the lavender pulse. Ponchomon's bats were turned to stone. The pulse continued forward. Ponchomon couldn't get out of the way and was enveloped by the lavender attack. The ghostly Togemon dropped to the ground and shattered dissolving into dust. Pegasusmon and Nefertimon curled around and opened fire on Quetzelmon in unison. The white, winged snake roared as emerald and pink lasers lanced across his body. The snake twisted and writhed before its body exploded.

"Ok, Pegasusmon, help Shurimon," Takeru called out.

Hikari repeated the idea to Nefertimon and the white sphinx rolled in the air and dove toward Shurimon. Rinkmon retreated from the shuriken bearing ninja as a shower of stars and holy stones exploded around him.

"Now let's get rid of Oryxmon and Kangaroomon," Iori whispered. "Same plan."

Daisuke and Ken nodded as they spoke into their D-3s. Raidramon and Puttimon scurried around their attackers and slid up against each other. Raidramon release a Thunder Blast at Oryxmon. The goat leapt out of the way of the attack and stood staunchly a few meters away from Raidramon. He scraped his hoofed feet against the icy earth. Puttimon fired a constant beam of pink energy into Kangaroomon trying to hold the marsupial back. Kangaroomon was slowly struggling forward punching against Puttimon's Heartner Beam. Raidramon fired a blast of lightning at the goat digimon. Oryxmon snorted loudly and clanged his bell. The compression wave shimmered as it pushed through the air. Raidramon's lightning attack was dispersed by the wave. Kangaroomon was pushing closer and Puttimon was straining to hold back the marsupial.

"Right…now!" shouted Daisuke and Ken.

Puttimon and Raidramon leapt out of the way of the Mystic Bell's wave. The wave crashed against Kangaroomon's chest and the marsupial was tossed to the ground, quivering.

"Thunder Blast!" roared Raidramon as he fired a bolt of lightning at Kangaroomon. The electricity snapped across the paralyzed kangaroo. Kangaroomon exploded into black data.

"Heartner Beam!" Puttimon swirled around and fired a narrow, concentrated blast of pink energy. Oryxmon pushed his horns into the beam and was pushed backward.

"Thunder Blast!" Another bolt of blue lightning burned across Oryxmon's flank and the goat bleated loudly before disappearing into dust.

Daisuke and Ken gave each other high fives. The rest of the children looked to Iori. He was already whispering to Ankylomon. The large, shelled dinosaur was charging Stegomon. The green, armored stegosaur balked as Ankylomon's head smashed into his side. Nefertimon and Pegasusmon were lancing beams of energy after the insanely fast Rinkmon.

"One more, Ankylomon!" Iori shouted. Ankylomon backed up and then charged ramming his knobbily, armored head into Stegomon's side. Stegomon skidded across the ice. A blue blur exploded into Stegomon's side causing the green dinosaur to slide back towards Ankylomon. Iori snapped his head up, "Miyako tell Shurimon to use his Double Star now!" Iori lifted his D-3 to his lips, "Ankylomon get out of the way!"

Miyako nodded and called on her D-3. Ankylomon bounded, as much as a heavily armored ankylosaur could bound, away from the two copied digimon as they slid across the icy ground. A swirl of wind appeared behind the two copied digimon and Shurimon drew one of the two, huge, lavender shurikens that were attached to his back.

"Double Star!" Shurimon threw his three pronged throwing star forward.

The shuriken buzzed through the air. Rinkmon and Stegomon were still dazed from their collision. The star passed through the two digimon and started to curl back. Stegomon and Rinkmon exploded into dust just as Shurimon's shuriken was hooked back onto the plant shinobi's beige robes.

"Nice work," Ken smiled, "You knew that Rinkmon's momentum…"

"Yep, he and Stegomon would move in the same direction after collision, but neither of them would feel too good about it," Iori smiled broadly.

"Now," Daisuke turned and glared at Impmon and the two DemiMamon who were looking horror at the digi-destined. "Are you going to come peacefully, or are we going to have work out our frustrations on you?"

"Not fair!" shouted Pul loudly. "YOU CAN'T WIN! THAT'S NOT FAIR! THIS PLAN WAS PERFECT!"

"Evidently it wasn't!" Miyako returned as she held Shurimon up. "Give us the data!"

"You want the data…" snarled Pul loudly. He swung the sword in his hand up. "TAKE IT!" Pul slashed the sword down.

"You idiot!" Impmon shouted loudly.

The data swirled forward. The apparition of a fox-like digimon appeared in the air. Data fed into the apparition and the fox digimon morphed into a long-armed, winged gargoyle-like digimon and then the rest of the data was absorbed into the gargoyle digimon. The flesh peeled away from the gargoyle, leaving a skeletal body. Its long arms morphed into large claws. Three more pairs of legs extended from the skeleton's vertebrae; two ended in red blades. The last pair touched the earth with three, skeletal claws. A long, skeletal tail swept behind the skeletal beast with a sharp, serrated stinger on the end.

"What is that thing…?" Miyako whispered as she looked in fear at the huge, skeletal scorpion that loomed over her.

"Skull Scorpiomon," grunted Pegasusmon. "He's an Ultimate, venomous, undead digimon."

"Beat this then!" shouted Pul loudly. "He's going to cut you to ribbons!"

"Pul, was this such a smart idea," Pal whimpered as the little demon looked up at the swinging, skeletal tail.

"There won't be enough of them left to bury," Pul growled clenching his fists. "Skull Scorpion! Take them out!"

The skeletal digimon's wide, flat head glared down at the digi-destined and their assembled digimon. The three prongs that projected back off of its flat head tilted back and forth and then its clawed arms fired forward. Ankylomon charged forward and smashed his armored shell against the claws, holding the skeletal scorpion back.

"Thunder Blast!" Raidramon roared firing a spark of lightning at the beast, but the spark didn't even reach Skull Scorpiomon before fizzling out.

"Heartner Beam…." Puttimon pointed his finger forward but couldn't produce a beam. "Uh oh…I think I'm out of juice."

"They're too tired, they can't fight," Takeru called. "If we stay here he'll finish us off."

"Get out, we'll hold Skull Scorpiomon," Iori shouted as he turned to Ankylomon.

"But…" Hikari hesitated as Skull Scorpiomon used his claws to grab onto the spikes that projected out of Ankylomon's shell and lifted the titanic beast.

"GO!" Iori shouted. "Run; we'll leave as soon as you're clear."

The others nodded hesitantly. Ankylomon smashed his mace-like tail into Skull Scorpiomon's chest. The skeleton roared and dropped Ankylomon. It reared up and opened its claws.

"Black Out!" black lightning ripped out of the claws and twisted around Ankylomon. The sandy shelled dinosaur locked its knees and held its ground as the dark energy whipped his face and body.

"Ankylomon, we only need to hold him for a little bit longer," Iori assured Ankylomon as he watched the others limp into the tunnel leading out of the cavern.

"Poison Pierce!" snarled Skull Scorpiomon.

Hikari and the others ran, the tunnel ahead of them growing larger. Hikari continued to turn her head back only to see Ankylomon getting pushed and thrown about in an attempt to hold the skeletal arachnid's attention. She waited for Miyako and the injured Shurimon to catch up to her and Nefertimon. Hikari winced as the skeletal tail of Skull Scorpiomon whipped around the skeleton's body and slapped Ankylomon with the vertebrae. Ankylomon skidded across the ground and came to a stop. The sandy shelled digimon charged forward and rammed his bony head into the thigh of Skull Scorpiomon. The scorpion staggered slightly and twisted, picking up Ankylomon. Miyako and Shurimon, the last of the retreating digi-destined, slipped into the tunnel. Hikari turned to run but stopped and looked back to see if Ankylomon and Iori were coming. Ankylomon was tossed to the ground and grunted as his bulk crashed against the icy surface.

"Let's get out of here, Ankylomon," Iori called as he started to run for the tunnel.

Hikari clenched her fists and prayed loudly. Ankylomon was galloping after Iori. Skull Scorpiomon was snarling behind them. Iori looked back. Skull Scorpiomon's claws open. Hikari bit her lip she saw Iori turn his head and look back. The boy slowed down. Hikari felt like screaming at the little boy.

"We aren't going to make it," Iori shouted as he came to a stop. "Run, Hikari!"

"Don't give up! Come on, hurry!" shouted Hikari loudly. "Don't…"

Black shards of lightning cut through the air and smashed into the upper roof of the tunnel, closing the entrance. Nefertimon grabbed Hikari with one of her large, lion-like paws and tossed the girl further into the tunnel, pouncing on her and spreading her white wings. The rocks slid down over the tunnel entrance, dust whirled around. Hikari coughed as the dry dirt caught in her throat. A feeling of pain rushed up from her heart. It was an emptiness, a sense of failure. She closed her eyes and curled her fingers into the semi-frozen earth.

"Hikari…" Nefertimon rose slightly and nudged the girl with her nose.

"Stupid…" Hikari whispered into the dirt. "Why does he always have to sacrifice himself…why didn't he run away…?"

"Hikari, we can talk about that later, but right now we have to get out of this cave before it collapses completely," Nefertimon said in a neutral and logical tone. Hikari was going to resist but the feline was nuzzling Hikari into a standing position. "We'll come back for him."

"I hope your ok, we'll be back," Hikari whispered, quietly, looking back at the rubble that covered the tunnel's opening, as Nefertimon pushed her forward.

888

Skull Scorpiomon scuttled across the ground on his six legs and snapped his claws. His tail was erect and the serrated blade of the stinger glistened in the gloomy, blue light. Ankylomon turned and tensed. He knelt down trying to bring his extremities under his shell.

"Poison Pierce!" The serrated blade sliced down and clanked against Ankylomon's armored shell.

Skull Scorpiomon snarled at the defeat of his stinger and decided to backhand Ankylomon with one of his claws. Ankylomon swung his tail and deflected the claw. Skull Scorpiomon's other claw though swung around and struck Ankylomon's head. The deflected claw opened and cinched around Ankylomon and tossed him to the ground.

"Ankylomon…" Iori ran forward.

Skull Scorpiomon's stinger embedded itself in front of Iori. The boy stopped and shakily looked at the chain of vertebrae that made the stinging tail. Ankylomon was struck by Skull Scorpiomon's energy attack.

"Iori," Ankylomon grunted, "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," the little, brown haired boy called out. He looked at the stinging tail as it retracted. "Wait…this digimon was made by the imp that had the original data…" Iori looked at Ankylomon, "We can't leave…we have to keep at it to get the others' data free."

Ankylomon was sent crashing against the wall over the tunnel entrance and crashed to the ground. Iori ran next to Ankylomon. The large dinosaur stood up and grunted.

"He's strong," grunted Ankylomon. Skull Scorpiomon started to scuttle towards them.

"He's got the others' data," Iori whispered quietly as he clasped the spikes on the edges of Ankylomon's shell. "If we let him go…the others won't be able to de-digivolve."

"I don't know how long I can hold him," Ankylomon whispered. "He's an Ultimate…"

"I know…" Iori whispered, looking down at his D-3. "I wish we didn't have to do this, I wish we could've escaped with the others…but we had to protect them, and now it's up to us to get them free of whatever spell those swords put on them. Grandpa always told me that we have to do whatever we can to help others, even if we don't want to…we have to do everything in our power to help. It's a matter of honor…"

Ankylomon nodded and growled and galloped forward. Iori looked up at where the dais was. The little demons there were difficult to see but he knew they were still there. Ankylomon plowed into Skull Scorpiomon and pushed the Ultimate back by the sheer virtue of his mass. Skull Scorpiomon lifted and tossed Ankylomon back. Ankylomon shook off the dirt and dust.

"Maybe if I could get a hold of the swords…maybe…" Iori narrowed his eyes slightly as he tried to concentrate. "If I can get the swords then maybe I can free the others from their Armored forms."

Iori started to run forward. Ankylomon was smashed into the ground. The long vertebral tail of Skull Scorpiomon swept around broad siding the ankylosaur. Ankylomon rolled a few feet and somehow landed on his feet, though with a considerable stagger. Iori clenched his fists and put on the speed. He could see the view of dais bobbed up and down with his movement.

The three digimon at the dais seemed to be more interested in Ankylomon's near futile attempts at defeating Skull Scorpiomon than in Iori's approach, or at least they had been. Impmon's head cocked up suddenly and he shouted.

The two DemiMamon flashed their eyes at Iori. Impmon looked a little worried. Iori was almost happy at that.

"What do you think you're doing, brat!?" shouted Impmon loudly as he leaned on one of the two swords the three digimon had in their possession.

"I'm taking that sword, it doesn't belong to you!" Iori said as he reached the stairs to the dais. He leapt to the second in a set of four stairs. The digimon on the dais leapt backward in surprise. Iori was about to leap on the dais.

"Bada Boom!" Flashes of heat pulsed through his heavy jacket. Iori stumbled backward and had to put both feet onto the second step to keep from falling. Impmon was standing at the head of the stairs glaring down at Iori. "You won't be doing anything; we stole this fair and square!"

Iori clenched his fists and glared up at Impmon and took a defiant step up. Impmon splayed his hands. Fireballs pelted Iori but they really didn't hurt, but they did stagger him, however.

"Hehe, that looks like fun," giggled one of the DemiMamon. It pointed a lavender headed scepter at Iori. "Petit Curse!"

Iori felt his body go numb as visions of shadowy specters played across his visions. He shook his body trying to toss off the attack. Bada Booms pelted his body but he gritted his teeth and took a step forward curling his coat over his head.

Iori shivered as his limbs flitted between numb and not numb. He lifted his head as he reached the top. The pelting of fireballs was getting harder but the flames weren't catching, they were much more like air shots with the flames being more for show than anything. Impmon staggered backward and the sword he'd been holding clattered on the dais. Iori's head instantly turned and he made a jump for the sword.

"No! Infernal Funnel!" Impmon roared. A giant fireball smashed into Iori and knocked him to the ground.

"Petit Nightmare!" chimed the DemiMamon twins.

Iori felt his legs curl and his arms clutch his chest. Shadows knotted around his body like lines of black rope. His ears filled with crackling and popping. His vision was getting fuzzy.

"Iori!" There was a loud voice in the distance. Iori turned his head. A fuzzy golden lump was lifted over a ropy white figure. The voice shouted again. "Iori!"

"Ank…Ankylomon," Iori whispered quietly. He winced and fought to pull his arms from his chest and straighten his legs. It was like he had massive Charlie horses in his calves. He slowly struggled to his hands and knees and then staggered to his feet. He stood in a wobbly stance, heaving as his legs quivered. "I won't let you down…"

Iori leapt at the sword that was lying in front of Impmon. The little boy's hands closed around the jeweled hilt of the sword and he rolled and rose to his feet slowly lifted the curved blade up.

Iori's D-3 squealed loudly as two motes of light flew through the air from the device. One was a lavender light the other was a golden one. Skull Scorpiomon reared up over a bruised Ankylomon who was lying on the ground. The spiked shell of the dinosaur was dented and scratched. Burns scuffed the surface of the digimon's hardened skin. The lights fused into Ankylomon. The dinosaur glowed brightly.

"Ankylomon armor synthesis digivolve to…" Ankylomon stood up and was covered by a layer of ceramic armor. He rose up on his hind limbs which morphed into footless legs. A skirt covered his pelvis with golden inlays and a sun shaped object in the front. His waist became thin and his chest wide with a large sapphire in the middle of his chest. His shoulders were rounded like balls attached to his shoulders. His arms, starting at the shoulder, were thin, but they curved into wide appendages at the wrist. A pair of tiny, three clawed hands jutted out of the arms. Ankylomon widened with a pair of wide ears on each side. Ankylomon's eyes widened and large, ceramic shutters slid down. A ceramic top rose from the top of the digimon's head and was capped by a large cross. A pair of clay wings sprouted from the ceramic warrior's back. Gold lining and designs flickered along the digimon's frame and edges, bordering sections of its body. It swung one of its arms forward and backhanded Skull Scorpiomon causing the skeletal monster to roll backwards. "…Shakkoumon, the Drilling Guardian of Knowledge and Reliability!"

"Son of a…" Impmon growled and looked at Iori, "This is your fault!"

"Hand over the other sword," Iori whispered in a stern tone. The sword was heavy his hands but he had it pointed at Impmon holding it slightly above his center of gravity. The blade curved upward and the tip of the sword pointed at Impmon's nose.

"What are you going to do with that, little boy?" Impmon snarled as he glared down the blade.

Iori's hazel eyes closed and he took a deep breath and slowly opened them. The hard, cold emeralds of the boy's eyes flickered in the faded blue light. The blade swept quickly past Impmon's head. Tufts of lavender hair flew into the air and a patch of hairlessness appeared on the little digimon's cheek.

"I am not a violent person," Iori said quietly trying to contain the excitement in his arms, "but I can be…"

Impmon gulped loudly. There was a loud explosion and the imp jumped and scurried away. Shakkoumon eyes had flashed and the explosion was the red eye lasers cutting across Skull Scorpiomon's claws. Iori's eyes slid to his left and looked up at the two hovering DemiMamon.

"Well, you can't fly!" laughed the one carrying the sword.

"Neither can you," said Iori. "I suspect that sword is heavier than your wings can hold, you may be able to sustain a low flight but you can't get too much higher."

Iori turned and charged toward the armed DemiMamon. The little, winged imp frantically flapped his wings but he wasn't rising. His brother was already rising well out of Iori's reach.

"Get down here, Pal!" shouted the struggling DemiMamon. The imp gulped loudly and quickly hauled the sword he was carrying up to block Iori's strike. The little boy pushed and easily swatted the tiny demon to the ground. Kopyakutta and Pastu clashed.

"You can't hurt Kopyakutta with its twin, Pastu," hissed DemiMamon loudly as he struggled to hold his blade up against Iori's pressing thrust.

"Then surrender it to me," Iori said in an even, neutral tone.

The DemiMamon snarled angrily at the suggestion but then relented. "Fine, but don't think you're getting out of here! Skull Scorpiomon will cut you to bits!"

Iori stood straight and stepped back, but he still pointed the sword at the little imp. "Lay it down and then fly away."

The DemiMamon growled and released the sword in his hand and let it fall to the earth. He then took a step back and took off, rising into the air on his tiny wings. Iori walked over and picked up the sword and then looked up.

Shakkoumon was being struck by Skull Scorpiomon's Black Out attack. The black energy was being sucked into Shakkoumon's mouth. Skull Scorpiomon swung one of its claws at the large, clay warrior. Shakkoumon shunted on the force-fields under his footless legs and swept around the claw. The sun emblem on Shakkoumon's skirt opened and bladed discs flew from the clay digimon's innards. The serrated discs caught in Skull Scorpiomon's chest and exploded forcing the huge arachnid to clatter to the ground. It howled loudly as its bones clanked. Skull Scorpiomon pounced forward brandishing its ivory claws. Shakkoumon blocked one of the claws with one of his hands and then swung his other hand forward. His triangular fingers cinched together and began to spin.

"Rock Cracking!" Shakkoumon jabbed the spinning drill into the skeletal scorpion's sternum.

Skull Scorpiomon staggered back but the beast's wild rage still burned.

"Poison Pierce!" Its tail swept up and then flashed forward the serrated stinger dripping with inky black venom.

Shakkoumon grabbed the tail before it struck home. The ceramic covers over Shakkoumon's eyes slid open. They yellow eyes beyond the coverts turned red. "Justice Beam!"

A pair of red lasers sliced through the bones of Skull Scorpiomon, shattering the skeletal beast. Black dust erupted from the remains of Skull Scorpiomon, twisting and swirling. A portion of the dust formed into a cohesive form, a gray, bipedal fox.

Iori looked at the vulpine phantom as it walked forward. "Child, your fight is just beginning…these three…" The fox pointed behind Iori. The boy turned and looked upon the twin DemiMamon and Impmon. The fox narrowed its eyes, "are attempting to let loose a very dangerous power, a power that, if freed, will reshape not just this world but the Human World as well. There will be no escape from them, if they are freed…"

"They?" Iori turned and looked at the fox, "Who are 'they'?"

"The ancient protectors of this world, The Great…" The fox dispersed as a burst of lavender flame ruptured the data field holding her together.

"None of your business!" Impmon snarled loudly. "Now give me those swords!"

"No!" Iori growled sweeping the blades behind his back.

"Fine, be that way!" Impmon growled as he lifted his splayed hands outward. "Infernal Funnel!"

A beach ball of fire rose out of the ground. Impmon narrowed his eyes and tossed it forward. The flames swirled around the edges of the sphere. The red and yellow tongues of fire danced in Iori's eyes.

"Oxygen Torpedo!" A rush of air raced over Iori's head and speared the fireball easily dispersing it.

The air burst twisted its trajectory and caught Impmon, throwing the floppy eared, gremlin off of the dais and into the distance. The sound of a collision echoed in the cavern chamber, shaking loose rock and stalactites off of the roof. Iori could hear the hum of Shakkoumon coming up behind him and turned and looked up at the ceramic titan, hovering over the earth on footless legs. The titan bent at the waist and leaned forward, picking up Iori and gently placing the boy on his shoulder.

"We're still stuck down here," Iori said looking around.

Shakkoumon lifted his arms and started to spin the hands in their sockets. The whirring fingers turned into large drills. "Not necessarily…"

"You can't leave us here!" shouted one of the DemiMamon loudly as he flew in front of Shakkoumon.

"We'll leave you a way out," Shakkoumon chuckled as he strained the hovering devices on the bottom of his legs and pushed upward. The drills hit the roof of the cave chamber and the rock started to fly in all direction as the blades of the drill whined against the stone.

888

"We're going back, now!" Daisuke shouted as he started to march toward the cave with Raidramon.

"Wait," Miyako grabbed the flame jacketed boy and dragged him back to the others. Daisuke's shoes dug into the snow creating large lines in the arctic landscape as Miyako tugged him back toward the tree line where the others were huddled.

"Well, I'm not leaving anyone behind!" Daisuke shouted. The brunette haired boy yanked himself free of the pink haired girl's grip. "We're going back!"

"Even if we dug through the rubble and got to him," Ken started. The lavender haired boy looked at the pink pixie leaning against his legs. "There's no guarantee that we'd get him out, in fact if we attempted to dig through the rubble, we may only end up causing a larger cave in."

"I'm with Daisuke," Hikari said quietly. "You didn't see him when the chamber entrance collapsed. It was like he was resigned to the fact he wasn't going to make it."

"And he's still down there with Skull Scorpiomon," Takeru said, looking up at the cave. "Even though Ankylomon's tough, he can't hold out forever…"

"That's another thing to consider," Miyako said as she looked at the shredded robes hanging on an exhausted Shurimon. "If we go down there we're in no better condition to save Iori than he is. We'll just become more victims."

"Well, that's selfish," snorted Daisuke.

"It's the truth, Goggle Head!" Miyako snapped loudly clenching her fists. Her red jacket was covered in dirt and dust and her hair was all disarranged. "We're in no condition to save anyone!"

"So we're going to leave him to be torn to shreds by some crazy skeletal arachnid…?" Daisuke shot back loudly. His brown eyes burned with flames, almost like the flames that appeared on Flamedramon's armor. "We can't just leave him!"

"Guys…" Hikari looked at Miyako and then Daisuke. It tore her up inside to see them arguing over this. It tore her up even more inside that she could see Miyako and Ken's point. She wanted to save Iori, but did she really want to go into a futile situation to do it, she wasn't sure. "Please, don't fight."

"Iori would do it to save us," Takeru said quietly. The other digi-destined turned and looked at the blonde haired boy in his sailor hat and puffy, gray vest jacket. "He stood up to Black WarGreymon all by himself, and he faced his fears to save us in the off sea oil platform. We can't just leave him behind because we're afraid of the risk."

The ground shook. It was a rumbling vibration. The children took up a defensive stance expecting Skull Scorpiomon to explode out of the earth. The hill the cave was built into erupted with earth and snow and ice. Takeru instantly recognized the hum that emanated from the cloud of dust, snow and rubble that clouded the escapee's identity.

A giant shadow like that of a clay doll hovered in the air. It had a rounded sugar bowl like head, long arms with tiny hands and footless legs. A skirt swept around its pelvis. The creature hovered forward. The other children cheered loudly.

"Shakkoumon, do it," Called out a familiar, rasping voice.

The clay warrior opened its mouth and five streaks of light fired down at the Armored digimon that accompanied the children. Instantly the Armored digimon de-digivolved to their Rookie states, all of them sighing deeply in relief. Shakkoumon gently put Iori down on the ground next to the children and then glowed, reverting back to Armadillomon as the two digimentals returned to their places in Iori's D-terminal.

"You're alive!" Hikari shouted as she jumped forward and hugged the little boy, almost swinging him around.

Iori was quite flustered by this sudden show of affection and blushed brightly when he was put down. The other descended upon him patting his back and hugging him. Iori smiled and blushed and kicked his foot into the ground. He then blinked and unzipped his jacket.

"That's right!" Iori said quickly. "I nearly forgot, I got the swords!"

"You mean we actually…have one of these artifacts?" Ken looked at the sabers, taking one and holding it up.

"What do we do with it?" Daisuke asked as he inspected the sword Ken held.

"Shouldn't we give it to some police force or Gennai or something?" Miyako said, looking at the blade that Iori still held on to.

"That may not be a good idea," Takeru said quietly as he looked at the pair of swords. "It may be safer to take them with us back home. If we leave them here they'll just get stolen again."

"But if we take them home," Hikari said quietly, "They may come to Earth after them…"

"But they'd have to build an army to do that," Takeru said quietly, "And with the Harmonious Ones around the barrier between the Digital World and Earth has never been stronger. It would be a lot of work to break through the barrier…"

"Plus if Gennai wants the swords back he can always ask for them," Ken said as he handed the saber he'd taken back to Iori. "They would really be safer in our world than here."

The others nodded in agreement. They and their digimon walked toward the digi-port and in a few seconds the arctic area flashed with a bright light and the children, the digimon and the Fangs of Nidhogg left the Digital World's plane of existence.

888

"You best not drop me!" shouted Impmon as he strained. He looked up at the two DemiMamon above him, their hands grabbing onto Impmon's.

"If we dropped you, Impmon," snorted one of the DemiMamon as he flapped his wings frantically. "There wouldn't be enough of you left to complain about being dropped!"

"So much for your perfect plan!" Impmon sneered up at the two twins as they winged their way up the large, vertical tunnel that Shakkoumon made when escaped the underground chamber. "Perfect failure is what it was!"

"You know for someone dangling tens of meters above the ground below him, you're pretty snarky!" returned the DemiMamon.

"You wouldn't dare, Pul," Impmon narrowed his eyes angrily at the DemiMamon.

"Don't test me, Impmon," Pul replied angrily. "Our master may wish you to be around, but he didn't say it was a necessity."

"Please stop fighting," whimpered the other DemiMamon. "All this fussing is making it very difficult to hold on…"

"Oh shut up, Pal!" shouted Pul and Impmon loudly as they continued upward towards their collective freedom.


	5. The Heart of Vritra

**I don't own digimon, etc.**

**The Heart of Vritra**

** And**

** The Power of the Miraculous, Black Knight**

**888**

All through the forest they sang out in chorus, bouncing along, their songs filling the air. They were Koromon, small, round digimon with long ribbon-like ears. They were on a foraging expedition from their hidden, underground village. They were singing because the six of them had found a new and much more luscious patch of strawberries, enough to supply them with fruit throughout the year. They bounded along an overgrown path, carrying stuffed satchels of strawberries in their mouths.

The six Koromon came to a bend in the root infested path and turned when suddenly a Gotsumon leapt in front of them. The rocky semi-humanoid Rookie digimon sneered at them. Its stony hands were clenched into a fist. The forest canopy's shadows fell sinisterly over his face only allowing the soft hazel glow of its eyes glint through the darkness.

The Koromon stopped and looked up at the digimon before them. This wasn't a strange occurrence. The Gotsumon had a village outside the forest in a desert region, but they would come into the forest to find water and food. The Koromon had accepted them and even made a number of deals with the Gotsumon.

"Hand over the berries," growled the rock digimon loudly extending one of its arms and opening its hand and then closing it making a beckoning motion.

"What?" The lead Koromon blinked in surprise. "Why should we? There are plenty of berries for everyone…."

"My village doesn't think so," growled the Gotsumon. "We think you're taking all the best fruits and nuts and leaving us with the scraps. You don't deserve the top picks. You're small and weak, we're bigger and stronger. We need the better fruits. We demand you hand them over…"

"No!" The lead Koromon snarled bouncing backward defiantly. "We found these berries fair and square! They're ours…find your own berries!"

"I can't allow that," growled the Gotsumon. "You see, we think you're trying to stock up, so we've sent some of our forces to your little hidden city…"

"What!?" gulped the Koromon leader. "You can't…our agreement!"

"Fool, we only made that agreement so we could investigate this forest unhindered," The Gotsumon took a step forward. "Some of our men have evolved to their next form…if your village resists it will be destroyed."

"Maybe we should hand over the berries," whispered one of the Koromon in the back. "Like you said there's plenty for everyone…"

"No, if we give in to bullying now, they'll just ask for more," snarled the Koromon leader. "Then there'll be nothing for any of us."

"I'm a Rookie, what do you In-Trainings think you can do!" The Gotsumon sniped with a laugh.

The rock digimon charged forward. The pink In-Training digimon bounded in multiple directions as the stone digimon ran past. As they bounced they turned and puffed out their cheeks. Streams of bubbles flew forward popping and exploding around the Gotsumon. The rock digimon snorted as the bubbles popped uselessly on his hard, mineralized skin. The Gotsumon clenched his fists and tossed his head forward. The stony crest on his forehead detached from the digimon's skull and flew forward. One of the Koromon got in the way of the rock and was bludgeoned, bursting into data. The other five digimon gasped loudly. Their eyes narrowed and their little bodies vibrated with the resonating growls they were forming. They pounced forward leaping at the rock digimon.

"Bubble Blow!" snapped the little In-Training digimon loudly as spat streams of soap bubbles at the Gotsumon.

Stones flew forward, smashing three of the five Koromon that advanced on the Gotsumon. The rock digimon backhanded another one smashing it into a tree. The little digimon dropped to the ground, coughed and then dispersed into data. The Gotsumon caught the last Koromon and held it up by the ears.

"Little, idiotic fools," chortled the Gotsumon. His hazel eyes burrowed into the soft, golden eyes of the Koromon. "Always fighting for a position above yourself. You should learn your place, at the feet of the Gotsumon. As I speak, our forces are crashing into your city, destroying all resistance. From the looks of your temperament I suspect there will be no one left from your city. We'll take the berries, the nuts, and all the resources of this forest for our own use…"

"No! NO!" the Koromon struggled, twisting in the air. "Bubble Blow!"

The wave of bubbles flustered the Gotsumon, forcing it to release his Koromon captive. The little, In-Training digimon fell to the ground and bounded away. It was a rush, first to escape the Gotsumon and secondly to get to the village in time to save his friends. Bouncing and rolling he pushed through the underbrush. He bounded over a huge fern, crash landing into a clearing. He grunted and looked up. He was too late.

The earth had been up ended. Flames and Ice covered the landscape. Greymon and Icemon foot prints covered the ground. He could hear the roars below, in the city.

"Tragedy…" whispered a voice behind Koromon. The In-Training digimon turned. An imp was sitting in a tree overlooking the scene. It had a small pair of wings. It was leaning nonchalantly on a twisted scepter with a rounded head, "the way those bullies are ripping your home apart. Right now they're just digging up your storehouses. I watched them destroy your friends…"

"You watched and didn't do anything!?" the Koromon felt the blood boiling under his skin.

"Like there was anything I could do," replied the imp, quietly. He sat down and swung his legs over the branch. "I'm just a weakling, too. My friends and I are in very much the same situation you are in. We're collectors of antiques…and there are those that are trying to make us stop, because they think we don't deserve the chance to hold these antiques. Bunch of human loving digimon…"

"What's that got to do with this?" the Koromon snarled as the hole in the ground puffed flames and smoke.

"Well, there is something…" said the little imp as he patted the black leather body suit that was tightly pulled over its plump form. "What if I could give you the power to stop this…to defeat those bullies, to get revenge against them?"

"Fine!" shouted Koromon loudly as he spun around. An explosion shook the earth underneath Koromon's body. "If you can, then do it!"

"You'll have to help us in our work," whispered the winged imp quietly. "Would you do as we ask, if we allowed you the chance for revenge?"

"YES! DO IT!" shouted Koromon loudly.

The imp sighed quietly lifted its scepter and bowed his head. A black orb shifted and phased into existence in the winged digimon's lavender paw. "Are you sure?"

"YES!" screamed Koromon, "Hurry before everything is lost!"

The imp smirked and pointed his scepter at Koromon, "Then our contract is made…Petit Curse!" A marble of darkness flew forward and struck Koromon in the forehead. "Just remember, no matter how strong you get, or how far you run, I'll be able to find you and when I need you, your power will belong to me…" The imp lifted the black ball in his other paw up, "Dark Digi-core Activate."

Darkness swarmed around the small figure of Koromon. The shrouds of shadows curled around Koromon as his body changed and grew. His body hesitated as it stabilized in his Rookie form. A second burst of energy ripped through the Rookie's body and he changed again growing taller. Strength pulsed off of his body. Waves of darkness throbbed off of Koromon's newest form. The black shadows dragged after the form as it shot into the hole in the ground.

"My, my, what did you do to him, he was very anxious to wreak revenge?" The little imp asked quietly as he looked down at the ground. A shadow appeared out of the bushes. The imp smiled quietly down at the stony figure standing below, "You look nice, just like a Gotsumon…"

The stony figure became fuzzy and then vanished into a ruby stone. Two digimon remained behind. A winged imp, identical to the one in the tree, was standing on the shoulders of a second, wingless imp with a smiley face etched on its stomach.

"I don't know how you controlled all those Champion digimon you created," Impmon snorted as shook his head and forced the winged imp to get off his head.

"Not difficult, just make them and point them in the direction of defenseless victims," chuckled the winged digimon in the tree. He looked lazily down at the wingless imp. "The digi-destined will be hesitant to destroy someone misled…but with him under our control; he'll have no problems with offing them."

"The Heart of Vritra is beautiful," the other winged digimon sighed as he held it in the air and let the sunlight glint through the red prism. The winged imp looked up at his twin in the tree, "Isn't it Pul?"

"Yes, Pal, it is. Now there are only two artifacts left to capture," sighed the imp resting in the tree. They were all ignoring the howls and eruptions of darkness flooding upward out of the hole their beasts had created.

"And to regain the swords," snorted the wingless imp.

"Yes, Impmon, and the swords," Pul grumbled as he spread his wings and flew down. "Now, let us go, before our new friend comes back up. We don't want to be attached to this."

The three, little imps left the scene, disappearing into the forests. The ground eroded away and exploded upward as a single figure rose up hovered for a few seconds then streaked off toward the edge of the forest.

888

She slung her book bag over her shoulder and walked down the green linoleum floored halls of the school. She didn't look up, she rarely had. She could hear the whispers. Some were of admiration, others of disdain. None of them could understand the ordeal she went through, even if a handful of them had digimon partners. None of them knew the feeling of having something growing in the back of their neck or the angry hateful whispers in their dreams. Last year she'd have held it against them but now she really didn't care, all she wanted to do was go home and let her partner out of her bag.

The heavy metal doors swung open and a gush of air flooded forward. She took a deep breath as the air swirled around her making her shoulder length brown hair lift and fall. She gripped the short green dress that made up her uniform. She felt something prod her in the back.

"In a minute, Salamon," whispered the girl quietly. She descended the stairs of the school, jogging.

"It's stuffy in here, Keiko," whimpered a voice from inside the bag.

The girl ran to the gate and jogged to the corner of the block. She stopped and unzipped her bag. A brown head popped out of the green bag and shook its head. Floppy ears flapped back and forth as the kitten-like puppy shook its head. Large brown eyes looked up at the girl.

"I'm sorry, Salamon, but there are still a lot people who are scared," Keiko whispered. Keiko winced and rubbed the back of her neck.

"Are you ok?" the puppy asked quickly.

"Yeah…just…" Keiko opened her eyes and smiled. "sometimes…when I'm frustrated." She sighed, "I had a bad day…a math test didn't go well."

"Hey, isn't that Ken," Salamon called out. Keiko looked up. The tall, lank boy was jogging along the sidewalk across the street. "I wonder where he's going…"

"Well, let's ask him," Keiko replied as she ran after him. "KEN! KEN!"

The young man stopped and turned. He was evidently coming from school; he was still in his gray uniform. A suitcase-like book carrier was held limply in his hand. His dark eyes lifted and caught Keiko's.

"Oh, ah…hi," Ken said in a flustered manner. He smiled awkwardly and his eyes glanced downward. His free hand rubbed the back of his head, "So…ah ha…so how's things, Keiko?"

"We saw you, Salamon and I, and we were wondering where you're going," Keiko smiled innocently. She glanced back and forth, "Where's Wormmon?"

"He's home," Ken said quickly a lilt of nervousness trembling across his throat. "I have to get going there. He and I are meeting friends in the Digital World."

"Oh…the other Chosen Ones," Keiko sighed quietly looking down. She looked up, "I know we're not as strong as you guys and we got tied up with that bad guy, but some of the others have wanted to join in with you guys…we want to help a little at least."

"Actually, I'm going to meet a friend of mine from Mexico, she got her partner last year," Ken said with a smile. "And it's not that we don't like you or anything, it's just we've been busy."

Keiko sighed and looked down, "I suppose you should get going; you're friend is probably getting worried…"

"Would you like to come?" Ken said as he extended a hand. "I have a digi-port program on my home PC, I was going to just go home, pick up Minomon and digi-port over."

"Minomon…" Keiko looked confusedly.

"Wormmon's In-Training form," Ken said with a smile. "He usually is in his In-Training form when we're home, because it's more efficient and less conspicuous."

"AHHH," Keiko said with a nodding smile.

"I don't have to de-evolve," Salamon said proudly. "I've been here long enough to keep this form, and I look so cute that Keiko's parents don't mind, they just pretend that I'm Keiko's puppy."

"Right, well, come on," Ken said with a smile.

"He's really different," whispered Keiko quietly to Salamon as Ken walked about ten steps ahead. "Last year he was really sad, and kind of depressing. I remember after the fight with MaloMyotismon he kind of disappeared for a few days."

"Mmm, well he seems happy enough," Salamon said as she looked at Ken.

"Yep, one of his friends has a Gatomon," Keiko said as she ran next to him, "Isn't that right, Ken, doesn't one of your friends of a Gatomon?"

"Uh well, yeah, right now though, Kari's partner has been spending more of her time as Salamon," Ken said as if he had his mind on something else.

"Is this your apartment building?" Keiko asked as Ken reached up at the handle of a metal gate.

"Yep," Ken opened the gate and let Keiko through.

The two children walked up the short path and went in. Ken walked down a corridor and pressed the button for an elevator. Keiko and Ken stood in the small closet as it hummed up the elevator shaft. She looked at him and smiled. He blushed and straightened up, watching the numbers that lined the top of the elevator door consecutively light up and darken. It dinged loudly and Ken sighed loudly and nearly stumbled out of the elevator cabin. Keiko giggled slightly and followed Ken. He walked down three doors.

"And this, is my parents' apartment," said Ken as he put his hand on the door handle. He pushed the door open.

"Ken, honey, you're home fast," called out a woman's voice. A woman appeared in the entry way. She had curly, brown hair. She had a lacy apron on and a bluish blouse and dress. She blinked in surprise as Keiko stepped forward. "Oh…hello."

"Hello, Mrs. Ichijouji," Keiko said and bowed gently pirouetting her green skirt. She looked up. Ken was seven layers of red and Mrs. Ichijouji was literally beaming with happiness her hands were clasped over her chest.

"Oh, I was so worried, but now…" Mrs. Ichijouji hiccupped and sniffled loudly.

"She's just a friend," Ken finally gritted out as he walked past his face still seven layers of red, even his ears had attained a maroon tint. "Mom, I have to go to the Digital World…Keiko is coming with me…"

"Oh," Ken's mother's enthusiasm seemed to disappear.

"Don't worry, I'll be home by supper," Ken said as he walked in the back.

"Minomon is in your room, taking a nap, honey," Mrs. Ichijouji said as she started back toward the kitchen. She looked back at Keiko and smiled. "He and I made cookies…unfortunately there's only a couple left…"

"Mom, you're spoiling him," Ken grumbled as he turned and waved Keiko forward.

"Oh but he's so adorable, I can't resist that squeaky little voice and he's so innocent," Ken's mom replied.

Ken shook his head. He looked up and smirked. "Well, I suppose he can be persuasive. We'll be back later…"

"Oh, Mrs. Ichijouji, could you call my mother," Keiko said as she turned around. She rifled through her bag, Salamon leapt out with a snort.

"Ooo, isn't it cute!" Mrs. Ichijouji squealed. "Oh do you think she'd want a cookie…"

"Mom!" Ken grumbled.

"Oh, it won't hurt," Ken's mom shushed as she turned around and disappeared into the kitchen.

Keiko quickly snatched a piece of paper and a pen. She was writing down her phone number when Ken's mom reappeared and bent down and gave Salamon a peanut butter cookie.

"Can you tell her that Ken's tutoring me? My parents are still a little uncomfortable about this whole digimon thing…" Keiko blushed and looked down.

"Well, I don't like lying…" Ken's mom looked from Keiko to Salamon, who'd instantly inhaled the cookie, and then to Ken, "but this is a special situation, I guess…"

"Thanks, Mom," Ken said as he quickly turned. "Come on, my room's back here."

"Keep your door open, honey," Ken's mother tittered quietly as she went into the kitchen.

"Mother, we're going to the Digital World!" Ken blushed brightly.

Keiko giggled loudly and followed the reddened Ken down the corridor. He opened a door and walked into the bedroom beyond. Keiko walked around in a circle, Salamon following her. Ken's room was relatively bare. Just a lofted bed and a computer desk with a computer, a dresser and a closet furnished his room. There were no posters or hangings just the limited furniture.

"Ken, you're home!" chirped a little, nasally voice. A small, green grub embedded in a pine cone leapt down off the lofted bed. "You brought a friend! A…girl friend!"

"Don't start," Ken blushed as he hugged Minomon close. "This is Keiko; she's one of Noriko and Takashi's friends."

"Ooooh," Minomon said as the little grub looked over Ken's shoulder and down at Salamon. "Hey you're a Salamon."

"Quick this one," giggled the puppy.

"Salamon, be nice," shushed Keiko as she picked up the puppy.

"Are we going somewhere Ken?" asked Minomon as the boy sat down at his desk and turned on his computer.

"Yep, I got a message from Rosa," Ken said quietly as he waited for the computer to boot up. He looked up at Keiko, "She's the friend of mine from Mexico."

"And we're going to the Digital World?" Minomon asked in confusion, "How'd Rosa get to the Digital World? She doesn't have a D-3…"

"One of her friends does," Ken replied. "She wanted to see me…" He looked over at Keiko, "she had a bit of crush on me. For a while she emailed me everyday, but it had stopped and I thought maybe she had forgotten about me…"

"But she didn't…" Minomon said with a smile. "Who can forget about you, Ken!?"

"You just have that effect on us girls," Keiko said coyly.

Ken turned away from Keiko, flushing silently, and started to bring the digi-port program online. A few seconds later the familiar gray box with the small window into the Digital World was up.

Ken stood up and clutched the D-3 on his waist and lifted it to the screen. He turned his head, "Are you ready?"

Keiko lifted her D-3 and held onto Salamon. "Ready."

"Digi-port Open!" Ken's room was bathed in light.

Streaks of light and pulses of electrified quanta flashed past Keiko's head as she looked ahead she could see Minomon glow with energy and morph into a green caterpillar about the size of a Dachshund. A large window of light appeared up ahead at the end of the tunnel of digital information. There was a sharp jerk as gravity reinstated its command on her body and she found herself propelled forward. Her face crashed into the small of Ken's back. Gray filled her vision before her cheek smashed against his tail bone. Keiko crashed to the ground with a 'wump'. There was a considerable groan and the brown haired girl instantly jumped backward.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm so sorry, Ken," Keiko stammered loudly trying to stand up.

Keiko took a step forward extending her hand to help Ken get up as he turned. She tripped over her feet and crashed down on Ken's lap. There was a second 'oof' as air pushed out of Ken. The boy's hands clenched Keiko's shoulders and Ken sat up and then knelt, bringing Keiko up with him. Finally he stood, helping Keiko up. All the while Salamon was snickering quietly near the old 'rabbit-ear' TV set they'd just been catapulted from.

"Are you ok, Keiko?" Ken asked as he looked over her.

"I'm fine, but are you ok?" Keiko asked with a blush. She dusted herself off and looked up at Ken as if she was waiting for a scolding from her mother. She twisted her hands into her skirt and bit her lower lip. "I'm really sorry, I just…wasn't…"

"Don't worry, happens to the best of us," Ken chuckled quietly, "You should've seen the others, it took them a good few months before they could keep themselves from landing in a lump of flailing arms and legs."

Keiko smiled slightly. Ken turned and started to walk. The ground was soft, but not spongy. She hadn't noticed it in the confusion, but it was already dark. She looked up and found a canopy of broadleaved plants. Wormmon was hopping alongside Ken. The green caterpillar looked up at Ken with wide loving eyes.

"They're really close," sighed Keiko quietly as she knelt down next to Salamon.

"And we're distant?" the puppy asked tilting her head.

"No…but just look," Keiko whispered quietly looking at the young man as he poked at a few trees.

"KEN!" shouted a sharp, trill voice.

Ken spun around in time for a lavender and pink blur to smash into his chest and for the second time in a matter of a few minutes be driven to the ground. Ken grunted as he back smashed to the ground. Wormmon harrumphed and bounded over to where Ken laid.

"What are you doing, trying to kill him!?" berated the caterpillar as he pushed a small girl off of Ken.

She looked like she was about eight or nine. She had caramel skin and long, dark hair. She giggled and snatched Wormmon hugging the green caterpillar tightly. The caterpillar put up a weak defense as it wriggled against the hug.

"Ken, Wormmon, cómo son?" asked the girl as she looked at Ken.

"Estamos bien," Ken replied quickly as he attempted to pry the caterpillar from the girl. "Rosa, éste es mi amigo, Keiko."

"Hola, Keiko!" the girl smiled and waved.

Keiko blinked and waved back, "Uh…Hola…"

"I'm sorry, that must have been very uncomfortable, we just exchanged pleasantries…she said hi and well…you know," Ken looked down and blushed. He turned to Rosa. "Rosa, Keiko does not know much Spanish," Ken said very slowly.

"Oh," Rosa looked at the Keiko with her dark, chocolate brown eyes. "I am sorry. Sometimes I….umm…how do you say…umm," The little girl said something in the language Keiko didn't understand but tapped and shook her head.

"Forget," Ken replied. The girl nodded and said something else, looking down as if she'd been naughty or bad. Ken shook his head, "Don't feel bad, you're just learning."

Ken reached out and touched the girl's shoulder and smiled. Wormmon instantly started making a fuss and poked Ken's leg.

"Rosa," Wormmon said quietly in his humble, warbling, mumbly voice. "Where's Gotsumon?"

"Oh, this way," said the little girl as she looked down at the caterpillar, "He is with Felipe, we have something to show you…something…something…muy malo…"

Keiko blinked and looked at Ken. His face wore a slight frown and his eyebrows were furrowed.

"Porqué malo?" Ken said in a contemplative tone.

"Come, I will show you," The girl took Ken's arm and pulled leading the boy away with Wormmon leaping after him.

Keiko looked down at Salamon. "This is…kind of over my head I think…"

"Well, I think it's a little interesting," The puppy said standing and looked after the others, "We're going with them right?"

"Yes," Keiko said as she ran after Ken and Rosa.

Rosa pulled Ken through the forest along a worn path. Wormmon grumbled and complained about stumps and roots being too tall for him, several times forcing Ken to turn and pick him up. Finally they came to the edge of the forest. There was a down slope. Keiko looked down. A sage brush area stretched out into the distance. Rocks and rubble covered the ground, but that wasn't all. Giant, black gashes scared the earth. Craters dotted the area and smoke still streamed off of portions of the rocks. Two figures were standing at the ridge of the hill. One was a boy, maybe a year younger than Ken. A giant gear floated next to him and next two the both of them was a single digimon composed of rock. It had a slightly humanoid figure. It turned and a pair of sad, golden eyes looked back at Keiko and the others.

"Éste es Felipe," said Rosa quickly as she pointed to the boy. He had short, wavy black hair. His eyes were sharp and his skin was the similar color as Rosa's if only a slightly deeper shade. He wore a green shirt with a pair of blue jeans.

"Hola," the boy waved. Keiko replied in kind, though much more hesitantly and nervously, in fact it kind of squeaked out.

"Umm, this is Felipe," Ken said as he walked up to the crest of the hill.

Keiko walked up next to Ken and saw the flames and smoke, but then again this was the Digital World and this could be a landmark of some sort, "I don't understand…what's wrong?"

Ken's eyes scanned the scene. He looked down at Rosa. "Cuál es la problema?"

"Éste era la ciudad del Gotsumon," replied Rosa quietly. The Gotsumon looked sadly over the area.

Ken turned his head to Keiko. "This is Gotsumon's city…or it used to be…" He turned to Rosa and spoke in Spanish. The girl shrugged her shoulders and said something response. The girl seemed to relate an entire story and Ken stood their nodding, sometimes asking her to repeat something. Ken looked at Keiko, "It happened earlier today. Rosa and her friend were coming here for Gotsumon, so he could see some of his friends, when they got here a few hours ago it was still burning. Evidently, there is a trail of destruction that moves that way." Ken pointed beyond the remains of the city.

"Maybe you should call the others…" Keiko whispered to Ken quietly.

"Can't…the others' school is having a field trip to Kyoto, and will be there until tonight," Ken replied. "Miyako is stuck in after school clubs and the older kids don't have a means to get here. We're the only ones remotely close to being available." Ken locked a gaze on Keiko. "If you want to go home, I won't blame you, but I have to find out who's at the bottom of this."

"I can't leave you here without backup," Keiko stated indignantly. She looked in Ken's eyes. "If someone did this then they need to be brought to justice."

"Ok," Ken looked over the ridge. "We're tracking this guy down."

Rosa relayed the message to her friend. Felipe smiled and saluted. Ken lifted his D-3. He pointed it at Wormmon. Keiko gulped and fumbled bringing her D-3 up and pointing it at Salamon. She and Salamon hadn't much in the way of experience digivolving, only a handful of times when they had been in the Digital World and attacked by wild digimon.

Rosa was quick in lifting the small, white digivice she possessed and pointing it at her Gotsumon partner. Her friend, Felipe, lifted an orange D-3 and pointed it awkwardly at his gear partner.

"Wormmon digivolve to…" The caterpillar was covered in light and grew, morphing in front of Keiko's eyes. A wasp-like man stepped forward and laced wings flitted out of the back of the insect's emerald exoskeleton. "…Stingmon!"

The insect warrior lifted Ken and put him on his shoulder. Keiko had forgotten how sleek and impressive Stingmon was. The insect was tall and thin with shimmering green armor. Elegant, spiked antennae swept back on a squat head dominated by large, red eyes. Stingmon's wings whirred to life and hovered off the ground.

"Gotsumon digivolve to…" The stone digimon glowed and fell on all fours before becoming a massive beast. A leathery skin covered the digimon's body. A huge frill fanned around the digimon's neck. A single horn projected up from the digimon's new snout that was squarer giving the digimon the feeling of a triceratops-like dinosaur. A heavy tail swept back and forth as it stomped forward, "….Monochromon!"

Rosa scrambled up on the back of the beast's spin and held onto the spikes that projected up through the frill. Rosa leaned over and said something to the boy she was with and the young man was soon being pulled up on the back of the dinosaur.

Keiko gulped and looked down at Salamon. "You ready?"

"Sure…" Salamon replied quietly. The puppy closed her eyes. A light filled her body and then shown brightly outward as her body changed. She stood up on two legs. Four simple, cream colored wings unfurled from her back. A golden mask fell over her canine face, which was framed by silky golden hair. A red turban of sorts was tied around her head and trailed down over her shoulder and over the golden breast plate that covered her chest. Her midriff was exposed save four two bands of leather that crisscrossed her navel. A band of cloth fell from a belt that was around her waist. Attached to the belt, in the back, were two sheathes that held two swords. A staff also appeared in one of her hands. "Salamon digivolve to D'Arcmon!"

"Well that went better than expected," Keiko sighed as she looked up at the female angel. "Last time we tried that…"

"Don't remind me," replied the angel as she grimaced at the thought.

"Felipe, usted va a venir con nostotras, o, no?" Rosa asked sharply as she looked back at the boy.

"Rosa, be nice, of course he's coming with us," Ken reprimanded the overzealous girl in his gentle way. Ken looked at Felipe, "Can you get Hagurumon to evolve?" asked Ken quietly. The boy looked blankly at Ken. Ken's blue eyes closed slightly and he repeated himself in Spanish, quietly. Felipe shrugged his shoulders. Ken frowned slightly and said something in Spanish. He turned his head to Keiko, "I don't want to leave him here alone, so we're taking him with us."

"Is that safe, what if we get in trouble?" Keiko asked quietly.

"Hopefully it won't come to that," Ken said as Stingmon pulled away from the hill. "As for now, Stingmon and I can fly ahead and scout…"

"I'll come with you," Keiko said quickly as she walked over to D'Arcmon. "We'll help!"

"Uh…ok," Ken said with a slightly wide eyed look of surprise.

D'Arcmon frowned and looked at the girl. "I suspect that means you're going to want a ride…"

"Yes, it'll be like a piggyback ride," Keiko said with a smile.

D'Arcmon rolled her eyes and sighed, kneeling down and letting the girl scramble carefully onto her back. Keiko wrapped her arms around D'Arcmon's back and her legs locked around the angel's stomach.

The angel flapped her wings and took off. Ken called down to Rosa in Spanish. Keiko couldn't make out the individual words but Keiko smiled and nodded, waving. Ken turned and looked at Keiko.

"Ready?" asked the blue eyed boy as he looked straight into Keiko's eyes.

"Err, yes!" flustered Keiko as she blushed. "Let's go D'Arcmon!"

"Don't get so cocky," The angel snorted as she glided after Stingmon.

"What's wrong?" Keiko grumbled. "Why can't you be like Stingmon…he doesn't have to be asked…"

"It's just that you seem to think I'm happy to do this," replied D'Arcmon quietly as she flew.

"Don't you?" Keiko asked quietly.

"Yes, but I'd like to be asked…" replied D'Arcmon as she glided, "We are partners but that doesn't mean we're on equal footing relationship-wise as Ken and Stingmon…their connection is stronger…it's on entirely higher level."

"I want a relationship with you like he has with Stingmon," Keiko sighed as she hugged the angel and nuzzled closely to the digimon.

"That's impossible, since we aren't them," replied D'Arcmon quietly. "Don't obsess, we're perfectly good partners. And after we've gone through thick and thin and fought together and been happy together we'll be on that same level as Ken and Stingmon."

"It's just…I wish we were closer…" Keiko but stopped as D'Arcmon pulled back.

"I think we've found our city destroyer…" whispered the angel quietly as she looked down.

888

Ken shivered quietly. There was a huge force of Darkness ahead. He looked over where Keiko and D'Arcmon were gliding. He hoped he was doing the right thing. He wasn't like Daisuke; he couldn't lead with just his heart. He looked down and saw Rosa and Felipe. The others were so inexperienced and they could get hurt so easily. He should've never let Keiko come, but then again he couldn't reject her either. He frowned.

She was a child of the Dark Spore, just like he was. Of any of the digi-destined, maybe she and the other Dark Spore children knew what it felt like to have the hate control you. It was part of the reason he didn't want her to get hurt, and part of the reason he had suggested she go home. He'll just have to protect her. A chill shot up his spine.

"No, it can't be…" Stingmon stopped dragging Ken from his thoughts.

Ken looked down. A figure was stomping across the desert. Darkness seemed to exude from his body. Ken's heart skipped a beat. The figure was familiar, more than familiar; it was the catalyst that made him what he was today. The figure turned. A black helmet covered its head with large eyebrow prongs shooting off its armored forehead. Wide plates of black metal jutted off the creature's shoulders. A strip of black armor covered its chest. Black gauntlets covered its arms from his elbow to his wrist. Its lower legs and feet were covered in black armor. A three part, black, metal skirt was wrapped around its waist. Its midsection was narrow and muscular. The skin was black and gray and a pair of red eyes glared upward at him.

"Is that…is that…" Ken shivered quietly as memories he had buried deep into his psyche exploded upward. The memories of the synthetic beast, Chimeramon's, defeat Wormmon's sacrifice. "That's…that's…"

"Magna Blast!" Black rockets fired from the ports on the figure's shoulder plates.

Stingmon lurched out of the way as the dark projectiles exploded in the air.

"Magnamon," Stingmon breathed as he lowered down on a ridge a few meters from the blackened warrior of miracles.

"Are you ok, Ken!?" Keiko's voice was caught in Ken's ear. He looked up and watched as D'Arcmon lowered the girl down.

"I'm fine," Ken took a deep breath trying to smooth his stomach. He closed his eyes and pushed his memories back and looked to Keiko, "but this is bad, very, very bad…"

"Ken! You stopped!" A shout came from below. Ken jumped and turned around. Monochromon was galloping forward with Rosa, Felipe and Hagurumon on his back. "What is wrong?"

Ken turned and looked down from the ridge. Magnamon was standing in the distance glaring at them. His body seemed to pulse with the power to destroy a mountain.

"Ken, we're at a severe disadvantage," Stingmon grumbled quietly, "The power he's exuding, it's more than the energy that Veemon attained. It's so intense and strong like a primal bestial strength."

"Ken, is he the one that destroyed Gotsumon's village?" Rosa asked as she looked past him and down to where Magnamon stood.

"Ken, is it?" Keiko looked at him.

Ken shivered slightly, "I…I think so…"

"He destroyed my village," growled Monochromon angrily. "Rosa, Felipe get off…"

"Don't be hasty," Ken said loudly putting up his hands.

Monochromon snarled loudly as Rosa and Felipe jumped free, "You say don't be hasty! He destroyed my family, my friends! He killed them! They were peaceful digimon! They would never have hurt anyone; he killed them in cold blood!"

Monochromon charged forward. Ken shouted and held up his arms but was knocked out of the way. His butt hit the ground hard and he grunted as he bounced. Monochromon slid down the ridge, running with the slide. The large gray, single horned ceratops roared loudly. Ken covered his ears and closed his eyes, the memories of the roars of Chimeramon shooting through his mind like an ice pick. He shook his head.

Ken's eyes shot open. "STOP! Don't do it!"

It was too late. Monochromon was too far away. His roars rumbled through the air. Magnamon hunkered down and spread his arms.

"Ken…" Keiko and Rosa both looked at him almost simultaneously.

"Stingmon, go," Ken said in more of a command than a request.

The wasp man nodded and whirred off of the ridge and dive-bombed downward literally cutting through the air. His sleek body easily pushed through the air as his wings whirred so fast that they couldn't be seen. The green blur quickly caught the galloping gray beast and pushed past the hulking dinosaur.

Magnamon shifted his weight and leapt upward, jumping over Stingmon. Ken bit his lip. Magnamon outclassed Monochromon and Stingmon. If he had a choice he'd have ran away, but there was no choice. Monochromon made the choice for him.

"Keiko, we're going to need all the power we can muster," Ken said as confidently as he could, trying his best to retake command. "We're going to need D'Arcmon to keep Magnamon off his toes. I suspect she has a few holy energy attacks that should burn under this viral Magnamon's skin."

"I…I don't know," Keiko said quietly putting her finger to her lip.

Ken clenched his fist. He couldn't do this alone. He needed Daisuke. He needed someone who could command who could pull confidence out of the most insignificant bit of good news. He gritted his teeth.

"Did I do something wrong?" Keiko asked half afraid.

"No," Ken said through his teeth.

"D'Arcmon, go, help Stingmon," Keiko said loudly, as confidently as she could muster.

Ken felt something hit the pit of stomach. It was shame. He shouldn't have been so forceful, but then again he had to be aggressive. This wasn't the time to dilly dally.

Ken lifted his D-3 to his lips, "Stingmon, full press, give Magnamon everything you have!"

"Right!" warbled a voice from the D-3," Ken watched as a lavender blade ejected out of his black arm-gauntlets.

Stingmon dove for Magnamon. The black armored digimon lifted one of his onyx arm gauntlets up and blocked the strike and drove an armored knee into Stingmon's abdomen. The insect dropped backward. Magnamon swung his arm forward. A black ball of intertwining plasma formed in the digimon's palms. The plasma fired forward Stingmon buzzed his translucent wings and rocketed upward. The dark energy exploded into the earth. The ground shook under Ken's feet.

D'Arcmon arrived on the scene. She latched her staff on her back and drew two swords from her hips. Magnamon twisted around and blocked the angel's blades as she dropped down on him. Sparks seemed to flicker between the two but Magnamon kicked D'Arcmon away. Ken clenched his fist as Stingmon dove down on top of Magnamon. Stingmon's lavender blade crashed into Magnamon's back. The black armored warrior roared and drove his elbow into Stingmon's face, using the movement to help himself twist around to face Stingmon. The insect smashed a fist into Magnamon's face sending the warrior hovering backward. Monochromon roared loudly and belched a blast of magma into the back of Magnamon. Stingmon dove down into Magnamon's rising body, drilling feet into Magnamon's chest. The warrior of miracles' shadow smashed into the ground.

"Did we get him?" Rosa asked quietly as she looked down at the dust.

"I don't know," whispered Keiko quietly.

"I think we did," said Felipe in Spanish. "Nothing could've survived that clobbering."

Ken narrowed his eyes. He knew it wasn't over. It was just beginning and it wouldn't end prettily.

888

D'Arcmon glided behind Stingmon who was hovering above the dust cloud Magnamon had created.

"That's it? He wasn't so difficult," D'Arcmon said with a snort.

"It's not over," Stingmon's said with trepidation as he scanned the scene.

"Plasma Shoot!" Pulses of black plasma rocketed out of the dust. The cloud of sand and dirt swept away as Magnamon charged upward his clawed fists clenched. Jets on his large, black shoulder armor roared angrily upward.

D'Arcmon quickly unlatched her staff and swung it forward, "I'll put him down! Bapteme D'Armour!"

D'Arcmon spun her staff in her hands and pink energy crackled at the ends of the staff as they were dragged through the air. The energy gathered at the head of her staff in the winged ball emblem at its tip. A bolt of pink lightning smashed into the oncoming attacker. Magnamon sloughed off the attack and cut through it, driving a fist into D'Arcmon's stomach. The angel hiccupped and felt herself arch backward as she fell. Magnamon zoomed over head and then a massive force smashed into her chest as her back crashed into the ground. The force in front of her didn't last long and Magnamon retreated as Stingmon swept forward with his energy blade.

Monochromon slid in front of her as she saw Stingmon hurled through the air. D'Arcmon brought herself to her feet. Monochromon was standing in a defensive stance his legs locked, his head down and his frill projected upward.

"So you stand in my way now?" snorted Magnamon as he took a step forward.

"You killed my people," snarled Monochromon. The dinosaur shook his head brandishing his sharp horn about threateningly. "You killed my family, my friends…everything I had in the Digital World is aflame because of you!" Monochromon snorted loudly, "You murdered them in cold blood!"

Magnamon stopped and glared at Monochromon. His red eyes glared down Monochromon.

"You grew up in the Gotsumon village?" Magnamon seethed under his breath. His clawed hands closed and opened in rhythm with his breathing. "You dare call me a murderer! I saw your people killing mine! They attacked the Koromon village, destroyed it…one of your kind attacked me and my closest friends in the woods…He killed them all! You call me a cold-blooded killer, when it is your people that killed the defenseless, meek and mild Koromon! Your people got all they deserved…no…not everything…you're still alive…"

"I'll have revenge for my family!" roared Monochromon as he hunkered down.

Magnamon charged forward. Monochromon growled loudly as Magnamon approached. Monochromon thrust his massive skull forward drilling it into Magnamon's charge. The black armored warrior caught Monochromon's massive snout horn and a portion of the giant dinosaur's frill. Magnamon grunted as he dragged Monochromon off the ground and into the air, suplexing the beast. Monochromon tried to rise to his feet but Magnamon was quick to catch the beast and lift him. The black armored digimon then hovered upward with Monochromon over his head and started to spin.

D'Arcmon drew back. Magnamon was twirling Monochromon like the dinosaur was a rotor on a helicopter. Magnamon roared loudly.

"Everything you were will be crushed!" Magnamon flung Monochromon towards the ridge where the children were.

"No!" shouted D'Arcmon as she launched herself towards the ridge, wings held opened enough to get lift and then swept tightly against her body.

888

"Get him!" shouted Rosa loudly as she punched in the air.

Keiko didn't know what to do. Magnamon was easily taking whatever their digimon had to give. D'Arcmon had painfully been driven to the earth. Stingmon had been tossed like a used paper towel and now Monochromon was being lifted over Magnamon's head as if the titanic digimon was a trophy. Keiko watched painfully as the dinosaur was spun. There was a loud shout and then the next thing Keiko knew Monochromon was flying towards Rosa. Time seemed to slow down as the giant beast tumbled through the air towards the small, Spanish girl.

Ken was still frozen jabbering to Stingmon. Felipe was awestruck and Rosa was frozen watching the large dinosaur fall through the air towards her. A split second passed, Keiko pushed herself forward and tackled Rosa and Felipe in one large armful and pushed them out of the way. She looked up; Monochromon was only two meters away. There was a flash of beige and blue. She felt her feet leave the ground. Keiko blinked as time resumed its breakneck pace.

"D-D-D'Arcmon…" Keiko gasped loudly as she looked up at the face of the angel that had saved her.

"What, you think I'm going to let some fat butt digimon squash you?" D'Arcmon snorted with a smile. Keiko flushed quietly and buried her head in D'Arcmon's chest. "I'm going to put you down with the others; this isn't over yet…not by a long stretch…"

"O-okay," Keiko whispered as her fingers clasped onto D'Arcmon.

The ground touched her feet as D'Arcmon put Keiko down. She looked over to where Monochromon crashed down. Gotsumon was lying on the ground woozy but seemingly uninjured. Keiko spun around. Magnamon was hovering in the air, a single black storm cloud in the clear blue sky.

"So you're not dead, yet, Gotsumon," spat Magnamon loudly, his voice echoing in the distance.

"You…killed…my family," grunted Gotsumon as he struggled to his feet.

The rock digimon staggered forward and fell to one knee. Rosa and Felipe held up the digimon. Keiko looked up at D'Arcmon.

"Pathetic, I can almost understand your massacre now," Magnamon proclaimed loudly. "Your species is so weak it has to pick on the weak to feel powerful…"

"How dare you!" shouted Gotsumon loudly. "You're the one that massacred my family! How can you insult your victims, are you so heartless that you have no remorse?"

"Allow me to answer that with an act," Magnamon growled as he clenched his fist. "By finishing your people off!"

"Gotsumon!" Rosa hugged her partner and pulled him down to the ground covering him.

"Rosa, get out of there!" Ken shouted. He snapped his D-3 up to his mouth, "Stingmon intercept now!"

A green blur rocketed out of the basin below but Magnamon was already past Stingmon and putting on far too much speed for insect digimon to ever hope to match.

"Rosa, run away!" shouted Ken loudly.

The girl wouldn't move pinning Gotsumon to the ground. Magnamon was burning through the air like a comet. Black shadows twisted off of him like contrails as he twisted and spun towards Rosa and Gotsumon. Hagurumon grabbed Felipe and pulled him back. Keiko gulped and leapt in front of the girl spreading her arms out.

"Keiko!" D'Arcmon shouted snapping her head back. The canine angel dove in front of Keiko sweeping her staff up horizontally across her chest.

"Magna Punch!" Magnamon punched forward drilling his full forward force into target.

D'Arcmon gasped loudly as her staff snapped in half, shards flying up and landing behind Keiko. Keiko looked wide eyed at the scene a foot and half in front of her. The creamy white wings of D'Arcmon spread fully, quivering in strain. The angel's back arched as a claw tips poked through her back. Magnamon yanked his arm back and D'Arcmon jerked, and fell backward into Keiko's arms. There was no time for farewells. D'Arcmon just exploded into black dust leaving Keiko's arms painfully empty with the terrified blue eyes of D'Arcmon as the last thing Keiko could see of her partner. Keiko was stuck in a catatonic state. Her body was cold and hot at the same time and she felt like her muscles were locked in place. Everything felt heavy but her arms seemed ready to brace anything. Her eyes didn't blink but she didn't see anything save for those terrified blue eyes staring her in the eyes.

"She's dead and you killed her!" shouted Ken's voice. Keiko blinked and looked at the boy. He wasn't looking at her but at Magnamon. Ken's fists were clenched. "You killed her! How could you kill her?"

"She was protecting my enemy…" Magnamon grumbled shrugging his shoulders.

"And you killed her!" Ken shouted. "You killed a digimon who was a friend, a loved one! With no heart or remorse! She was innocent!" He closed his eyes and Keiko saw a tear slide its way down his cheek, "You killed her…I can't let you…let you…can't let you just walk away from that casually!"

Keiko looked at Magnamon. It was like a dream. The seething beast was standing there a couple of feet from her. She could see the muscle cords tense and relax. She watched the slight twitches in the armored dark knight's eyes. She could make out the subtle ridges and valleys of his black armor. She could feel the power emanating from him; it was like walking out of the shadow into the summer sun. His eyes were locked on her eyes.

"Your life was forfeit the moment you stood in front of that murderer," Magnamon growled quietly. He clenched his clawed hand into a fist.

"Killing, is that all you're good at!?" shouted Ken, loudly.

"I was born in death and I shall live in death," Magnamon said quietly as he took a step. "All will fear me…" He opened his fist and formed a black ball of plasma. "I become death, destroyer of worlds…"

"Don't touch her!" shouted Ken loudly.

Keiko's shook as she looked into the black pool of energy twisting a couple of feet from her. A wind blew up and kicked up dust. Magnamon turned. Keiko blinked and looked up. It was Stingmon, rising above Magnamon.

Keiko heard a horrible screeching. She didn't turn from Stingmon as he was bathed in a pink light. He grew a size and a half larger. His green armor cracked as his body became longer, revealing a bluish flesh under the armor. Black armor covered Stingmon's thighs and an extra pair of short arms jutted out from under his insect wings. They had a black gauntlet covered the arms and had long claws ejecting from the gauntlet as well as a huge spike that poked out from the back of the hand. Next to the new set of arms a third set of dragon like wings spread out behind the gauntleted hands. Stingmon's hips swiveled forward, giving him a more dinosaur-like stance than a human one. A blue tail swept out behind the large dinosaur bug. A spiked collar curled around Stingmon's neck. The green exoskeleton around his arms fell off, revealing sinewy, muscular blue arms. His legs became thicker and more heavily armored. His feet composed of two large clawed toes.

"Stingmon Armor Synthesis Digivolve to DinoBeemon: The Strong Heart of Kindness!" DinoBeemon's wings didn't whirr like Stingmon's but sounded much more like the rotors of a heavy helicopter and made a 'thump…thump…thump' sound.

DinoBeemon swung his reptilian tail around smacking Magnamon away from Keiko. The huge, beastly insect curled around and then flew forward driving his weight into the staggering Magnamon. Magnamon grunted and kicked away from DinoBeemon. He hovered and then flew backward retreating slightly away from the huge, Ultimate digimon.

"Keiko…" A pair of small hands wrapped around her waist. Keiko looked down. Rosa was hugging her. "Gracias…" whispered the little girl. "You protected me and Gotsumon…gracias…"

Keiko's eyes stung and she picked up the girl and hugged her tightly crying against the girl's shoulder. She sunk down to her knees, crying as Rosa held her up. She cried as explosions and roars erupted in her ears.

888

Magnamon crashed backward as DinoBeemon continued his vicious assault forward. The insect's wings whirred quickly.

"Irritant Buzz!" snarled the huge bug.

An invisible pulse of sound smashed into Magnamon, shaking his bones. The sound was resonating with his body and was literally paralyzing him. Magnamon grunted loudly and struggled against the sound's effect. Magnamon glared at DinoBeemon as the large insect started to vibrate. A pinkish glow covered DinoBeemon's body as his molecules sped up.

"Hell's Masquerade!" roared the insect as it charged forward as a pink streak of light.

Magnamon's eyes boggled as he felt DinoBeemon past through him. It was like a debris filled wind was pushing through every fiber of his being. The pink light pushed through him again and again, four, now five, now six times. Each time, DinoBeemon crisscrossed through him like he was the center of a giant gyroscope. Finally, DinoBeemon materialized in front of Magnamon.

"You think you've won," snarled Magnamon as his muscles finally began to behave and he yanked himself free of his paralysis. "This isn't over…"

"It is…" DinoBeemon snarled, "You cruel, remorseless beast, shall not survive my power…" A pink ball of light formed at the top of the green, sunflower seed shaped head of DinoBeemon, right between the insect's huge red eyes. "Heartner Beam!"

A pink laser fired forward. Magnamon lifted his hands. The beam refracted off of a huge black dome that formed in front of Magnamon.

Magnamon chuckled slowly. "Even after being blindsided I am still powerful enough to deflect your attack. Now it's my turn!"

DinoBeemon blinked and Magnamon was on him. Kicks, punches, knees and head butts smashed into DinoBeemon's emerald armor. A full moon kick slammed Magnamon's gauntleted foot onto the top of DinoBeemon's head. As the huge, prehistoric bug crashed to the ground Magnamon rose into the air and spread his arms. Ports all over his body opened.

"Magna Blast!" Streams of black light ripped through the air engulfing DinoBeemon and driving him into the sandy earth below, but Magnamon wasn't done.

The black knight dropped out of the sky and picked up DinoBeemon and lifted him into the air. He smashed an uppercut into DinoBeemon's chest and then tossed the bug into the air. Magnamon cupped his hands. A black burst of energy ripped into DinoBeemon. Magnamon smirked at the flailing shouts of the humans below. The 'terrible bee' was still lingering in the air its wings slowly thrumming up and down. Magnamon growled and jetted through the air closing his fist.

DinoBeemon shimmied back and forth, trying to escape, but Magnamon was far too fast and his fist crashed through the cracked armor of the insect's chest. DinoBeemon tumbled through the air crashing on the edge of the ledge like a crumpled up car dropped by a crane. The human that had shouted at him was kneeling next to the digimon as it glowed and reverted all the way to its In Training form. Magnamon turned his attention to the Gotsumon that the two girls were standing in front of. He clenched his fists and flung himself forward.

A bright light flooded Magnamon's vision. The wind whipped his ears and he blinked angrily. Suddenly his body was being smacked and struck by hot rocks falling from the skies. He instantly backed off and glared down at the ground below. A digimon was standing in front of the girls. It was a star with arms and legs. It glared up at Magnamon and opened its hand. Another wave of meteors pelted his armor. They didn't hurt but they were annoying and got in his way.

"That's good, Hagurumon!" shouted a boy. He was like the girl who was partnered to the Gotsumon, caramel colored skin and dark eyes and hair. He wore a greenish shirt. "Err, Starmon…Ken, take Minomon, run. Rosa, take Keiko and Gotsumon and go with Ken."

"Are you nuts!?" the boy with the ex-DinoBeemon shouted.

"Starmon, one more time!" shouted the boy in the green shirt.

"Meteor Shower!" Magnamon snarled as another sheet of flaming rocks fell between him and the humans. When the lights had finally stopped falling the children were retreating.

Magnamon clenched his fists and prepared to give chase when a loud voice shouted into his head, "Return to us! Magnamon, come to us now!"

Magnamon narrowed his eyes and was going to ignore the demand but as he moved forward his head was filled with a searing pain. Like someone stuck a glowing hot poker in his eye. Magnamon snarled and turned away and flew in the opposite direction.

888

"Rosa, I want you and Gotsumon to stay in the Human World," Ken said strictly as he pointed to the digi-port. He looked at Felipe, "I mean it! I don't want Rosa or Gotsumon back here until we sort out this Magnamon mess. As long as Magnamon's out there, Rosa and Gotsumon will be a primary target."

"But…" Gotsumon retorted loudly.

"No!" Ken said sharply. He glared at the rock digimon, "this fight has caused too much damage already! I'm not putting anyone else through this, at least not anyone that's ill-prepared for its outcome!"

He looked over to Keiko. She had stopped crying but there was emptiness in her eyes. He lifted his hand and curled his fingers around hers.

"I guess this is goodbye for now," Rosa said quietly, looking down sadly.

"This is for your protection, Rosa," Ken said soberly. "Just trust me…"

"Ok," the girl pouted quietly and crossed her arms.

Ken looked up to Felipe. "I think it would be best if you go."

Felipe nodded in agreement and turned. He opened the digi-port and the Mexican digi-destined disappeared. The light faded and disappeared as the port closed. Ken looked at Keiko.

"What will I do now?" whispered Keiko as she looked at her D-3, weakly. "Salamon is gone…."

"Salamon won't be gone forever," said Minomon as he perked up in Ken's arms. "She'll be reformatted and sent to Primary Village."

Keiko looked up at Minomon and then looked at Ken. Her eyes were still puffy from crying and her breath was shallow and prone to hiccupping. "Really?"

Ken nodded and smiled, "Yes, I should know, I lost Wormmon once…"

Keiko looked up at Ken's blue eyes. "How long…how long does it take?"

"It depends," Ken replied quietly, "but you'll know when she's back…if you're really close. You'll know." Ken walked up to Keiko and put his arm around her shoulder and hugged her. He was still a little uncomfortable with the idea but it felt right. The girl tensed up before easing slightly into the embrace. Ken looked at the digi-port. "Let's go home. I'll have Mom make you some tea, we can start thinking about how to best memorialize Salamon."

The girl nodded her head slowly and looked at the digi-port as Ken opened the doorway between worlds and the light engulfed them both.

888

"Man, I'm sorry, Ken," Daisuke's voice said over the telephone.

"Yeah, I promised to talk to her as often as possible, maybe you can ask Takeru to talk to her," Ken replied quietly into the phone. "I'm just worried about the spore still imbedded in her neck. MaloMyotismon took the flower but the spore is still in there, and if she gets too depressed the spore could start growing again."

"Don't worry, I'm sure she's a strong girl," replied Daisuke. Ken imagined that the boy was smiling because Daisuke was always the most convincing when he was smiling confidently.

Ken sighed quietly and rubbed the temples of his head, "So how did the field trip go?"

"Well, it went ok…" Daisuke said in a tone that told Ken that the young man was only telling half the truth.

"What happened?" Ken asked quietly. "What did you do?"

"Who told you I…" Daisuke started and then cursed to himself and Ken chuckled quietly to himself. Daisuke coughed and started to speak. "I kind of…knocked TK into the pool of a fountain. It wasn't my fault."

"Uh huh…" Ken said quietly as he smiled a very little bit.

"It wasn't!" asserted Daisuke sternly, "…but it was kind of windy and cold in Kyoto today. so…" Daisuke was quiet for a bit though Ken could hear him shifting his weight uneasily, "…he kind of caught a cold…"

Ken sighed and shook his head. Only Daisuke could cause so much trouble and still sound innocent enough to make you feel pity for him.

"Well, tell him to feel better for me," Ken said quietly as he looked at his book carrier lying by the door, "I have some homework to do, so I'll see you tomorrow…"

"Goodnight, Ken, and I hope that your friend feels a little better," Daisuke said with a cheerful optimism Ken could never hope to have. "I'll talk to TK about seeing your friend."

"I hope she's better, too, and thanks for talking to Takeru." Ken replied with a smile playing on his face, put there by Daisuke's infectious charisma. Ken stood up. "Goodnight, Daisuke. Talk to you later."

Daisuke repeated his wishes for Ken's night being good and then Ken listened for Daisuke to hang up. Ken smiled and put the phone back on the receiver.

"What do we do now, Ken?" Minomon hopped up on Ken's shoulder.

"Homework, then to bed," Ken said as he walked over to his book carrier. He picked the grub up and hugged him close. "I'm glad, you're ok, Minomon. I don't think I could go through losing you again…"


	6. Scales of the Basilisk

**I don't own digimon**

**The Scales of the Basilisk**

**888**

The doors flung open as the sounds of explosions rocked the museum. Outside Seaside City was trapped in the crossfire between the forces of Darkness and the power of Destiny, but Pul didn't care. He looked at the cabinets with different pieces of clothing, from old togas to the jewel incrusted necklaces of the Crystal Gorge. The jewels shimmered as sun crept down from the skylights, pushing through the dusty air in soft, white columns.

He turned and waved his arm. His twin, Pal, fluttered through the door. His brother's wings flapped heavily as he touched the ground. Pal patted down the black, leather body suit that held his chubby body. The white fur around his mouth curled upward in a cheerful smile. His eyes twinkled as he walked forward. Behind Pal a second, small digimon walked in. He was a little taller and slightly slimmer and wingless. His head was the same, purple fur with white around the mouth. The digimon swept his arrowhead-tipped tail back and forth in aggravation.

"It's four on one up there," growled the wingless digimon as he glowered up at the ceiling.

"Don't worry, Impmon," Pul proceeded forward not giving much heed to the imp.

Pul walked down a trail of carpet the bisected the huge interior room. Old airplanes hung from the ceiling, swaying with the rumbles of thundering blasts of energy. The city was in lock down; everyone was in shelters or had run for it. Pal was hopping from one statue to the next. One of them was a marble representation of a huge saber-toothed lion of sorts.

Pul looked back to Impmon. The lavender bodied digimon was scowling as he glared up at a scroll that hung on a support beam. At the scroll's head was a huge circle with seven small symbols drawn on its periphery. There was some writing under the circle and then a depiction of an angelic being. Impmon snorted and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Don't dilly-dally," Pal shouted. Impmon blinked and then continued forward.

"You know, it's bad enough that most digimon have forgotten about us…but then they go and glorify Mr. Holier Than Thou!" Impmon shouted at the top of his lungs.

Pul stopped and strained his floppy, triangular ears. A twitter rang softly in his ears.

"Oi? Did you hear me?" Impmon shouted as Pul tried to listen.

"Shush!" Pul snapped loudly glaring and trying to hear. The twitter started up again or so he thought.

"What is it?" Pal asked quietly as the winged demon-tyke fluttered forward.

"Probably nothing," Pul grumbled as he pushed past his brother and onward.

He walked faster and then broke into a slow jog that accelerated into a run. Pul looked up he could see it, the glittering, burnished red mail. The soft golden-red scales twinkling as the sunlight flitted through the skylights. A resounding thunder shook through the building and Pul snorted as he walked forward.

"I don't like this…" whimpered Pal, quietly hugging himself as he looked in all directions. "I'm worried…"

"Don't be, there's nothing here," Pul grumbled under his breath. Pul narrowed his eyes. A shadow seemed to sweep along a far wall. "Nothing here at all…"

"Yeah…what are you afraid of?" giggled Impmon. Pul turned his head but couldn't find the purple gremlin anywhere. Pal was shuddering silently, falling behind.

"Impmon don't wander off…" Pul chastised as he looked for the little demon.

"I didn't wander off…" Impmon's voice wandered out of the shadows.

"Stop it, Impmon," Pal started to whimper. Pul's twin brother's lavender eyes started to water. "Don't hide…come out…"

"Why? What are you afraid of," Impmon's voice asked. Suddenly the shadows exploded with tiny maroon flames that crackled and burst with sound and light and Impmon leapt on Pal, pinning the winged digimon to the ground, "the Boogeymon?"

"GET OFF ME! GET OFF ME! GET OFF ME!" Pal screamed as he slapped and struggled under the larger but slimmer Impmon.

Pal finally kicked Impmon off of him knocking the slender imp to the floor. Impmon leapt to his feet and clenched his red gloved, three fingered hands. Pul frowned and swept his staff forward and smacked it against the back of Impmon's head.

"Stop clowning around," Pul grumbled and caught Impmon by the tie of the red ascot that hung around his neck and tugged Impmon up to his feet. "This is serious business."

Impmon gagged loudly, coughing and spluttering. "Hey, stop it! This isn't funny!"

"Good…we understand each other," Pul said releasing his grip on Impmon's ascot and letting the imp crash to the floor, coughing. Pul flicked his eyes back and swung around quickly pointing his scepter forward. "Show yourself! I know you're there!"

"Then you will be expecting this," shouted a horribly hackneyed voice that was half raspy and half high pitched. Before Pul could do anything he, Pal and Impmon were assailed by a rain of excrement and sludge.

"Numemon!" growled Impmon loudly as he smacked in the face by a pie of sludge. "Ugh, I hate these guys…"

"Then get rid of them!" snarled Pul as he dove behind a glass box that held the sarcophagus of the first Pharaohmon emperor of the Southern Continent of Folder.

"Pul…" Pal gulped quietly.

"Yar, I wouldn't be doin' that if I were ye," A gravelly voice spoke.

Pul turned his head. A hook was curled around Pal's throat. Behind the hook was a man dressed in a sea captain's uniform. A bell-shaped buccaneers' hat, sporting a skull and crossbones, was on his head and covered his face except for one eye and his lips. The man's other arm was shaped into a cannon. The man had the cannon pressed against the head of Pal.

"Pal!" Pul shouted quickly in shock. He quickly regained his composure and clenched his scepter tightly. "What do you want, Hookmon?"

"Yar, I believe ye knows what me and me crew are 'ere fer," replied the man as he looked at Pul with his one eye. "We've been 'earin' 'bout this 'ere suit of armor that gives its wearer invincibility. Bein' a man that lives a risky life…I want it."

"The Scales of the Basilisk aren't for you!" snarled Pul loudly as he pointed his scepter forward. Pul was about to attack when there was a loud click.

"Now, I wouldn't be so frisky if I were ye," snorted the man loudly as he hugged Pal closer. "I might just go and accidentarily blow this young'un to kingdom come…"

Pul growled and his arm trembled as he fought his want to beat up the ignorant Hookmon with the safety of his brother. He finally heaved a sigh and dropped his scepter. He glared up at Hookmon.

"Don't think we're just going to let you walk off with it," Pul growled quietly.

"Har, Ya really think ya can catch me once I'm invincible…?" chuckled Hookmon as he dragged Pal with him, walking towards the pedestal at the head of the red carpet that held the Scales of the Basilisk.

"It doesn't work that way!" Pul snorted loudly. "It only produces a heat barrier…a ludicrously powerful heat barrier but not a barrier that can't be broken!"

"Tis 'nough for me," Hookmon said offhandedly with his garbled voice. "Numemon, get it…we're shovin' off."

"Aye, Aye!" the high pitched, scratchy voice said as the creatures slimed out of the shadows.

They were green with purple spots. Eyestalks projected off of their heads giving them a slug like appearance. Four of them clambered up on the pedestal and lifted the burnished orange suit of mail. The scaled armor tinkled as it was shifted. The Numemon lifted above their heads and started to slide away.

"Oi! You're just letting them get away!?" shouted Impmon as he leapt in front of the green digimon.

"Don't do it!" Pul shouted almost pleading. "If you do it, I will make sure you never get what you really want!"

Impmon's green irises flitted to his left and fell upon Pul.

"I'm serious, Impmon," Pul growled as his red eyes glared at the lavender imp. "Stand down…or else…"

"But…" Impmon scowled and glared at the Numemon. The mollusc's eyestalks leaned back and forth between Pul and Impmon. Impmon growled and took a step back.

"Ar har har har, Ar harharhar!" Hookmon's body shook with laughter as Impmon stood down and let the Numemon pass unmolested. The captain followed them, dragging a terrified Pal with him. "I'llerbe takin' this wee land lover wit' me. He'll be collateral to make sure we get to the docks safely."

Hookmon walked looking back at Impmon and Pul. Pul glared back, grinding his teeth as he watched Hookmon and his brother fade into the shadows.

"So…you've been royally screwed…" Impmon said with a tinge of annoyance and yet also flippancy. "What are we going to do?"

"It's obvious…" Pul said. A point of light flickered in the entrance to the museum opened. The light disappeared. "We're going to get him back and then we're getting the Scales…"

"Ah…" Impmon said quietly. "So…how are we going to…?"

"Magnamon," Pul said sharply as he marched forward past the art. He stopped and looked back at Impmon, "Well, come on."

"Oh, right!" Impmon blinked and ran after the winged gremlin.

888

"Static Force!" crimson energy flew forward from the clawed hands of the airborne, white furred man with the reddish, hawk-like leggings. He knew that one as, Silphymon.

"Fool!" Magnamon pushed his hand forward and formed a wall of black energy that deflected the red pulse.

Magnamon glared forward. Beside the five foot tall Silphymon was the much larger Paildramon. The blue skinned dragon hovered on leathery wings. Green armor covered the dragon's body and his gauntleted hands were grasping a pair of swiveling cannons on its hips. Behind the two of them was an even more titanic figure. It was clay, with a huge oval head and rounded hourglass-shaped body and skirt around its hips. A pair of footless legs hovered over the buildings below.

"It's weird…" growled the dragon loudly. "Like looking in some evil mirror…I looked like that?"

"Well, you were shinier, Paildramon," replied the man. "A lot shinier…"

"And better tempered," the clay creature affirmed.

Magnamon clenched his fists. They were teasing him. He couldn't take that. They didn't understand anything and they mocked him. He closed his eyes. He could feel it burning through his body. The strength he needed and desired coursed through his veins, singeing his heart. He took a deep breath and roared forward fists raised and jets firing.

Silphymon was the first to rush forward. The smallest of the digimon was the fastest and most agile. Magnamon slammed his fist into the man's tight stomach and sent the cyborg backward, flipping head over talon. Paildramon was the next one up. His large fist flew forward but Magnamon caught it easily. Paildramon had muscle but was relatively slow compared to Magnamon. Magnamon pivoted at his hip and tossed Paildramon over his shoulder. The dragon spiraled downward crashing into the city block below. Magnamon spun around and dove headfirst into the chest of the large clay digimon. Magnamon drilled fists viciously into the huge clay doll. Finally, like an old, sick sequoia the huge, clay monster crashed backward.

"Shakkoumon!" he heard Silphymon shout loudly.

He sensed it coming, a strike from behind. He twisted around and shunted to the left as a pink apparition of Silphymon dove past him. Magnamon turned and glared at the hawk-human cyborg. A sneer was on the man's face and though the creature's face had a visor covering its eyes, Magnamon could feel the glare coming from the digimon's eyes.

"Fire Knuckle!" Magnamon jerked awake as fire engulfed his body.

The flames weren't nearly as hot as the energy that flowed through his veins. Magnamon snorted and shrugged off the flames and turned to see the dragon, Paildramon, flying towards him with the guns on its hips pointed at him.

"Plasma Shoot!" Magnamon swept a clawed hand up and fired bolts of black ionized gas at Paildramon. The larger dragon retreated from the black energy as it flowed past.

"Justice Beam!" A sharp pain stabbed Magnamon in the back as two super hot lasers burned across the exposed flesh of his back.

Magnamon spun turned his head and saw the gargantuan clay warrior had risen up again. Magnamon clenched his fists tightly, his claws ever to slightly cutting into the grayish scaled flesh of his palms.

"Double Star!" The cyborg reached back and then flung his feather-tufted arms forward releasing a pair of large energy shurikens.

Magnamon crossed his arms holding his black gauntlets protect his body. The shurikens were repelled and Magnamon growled, rising higher into the air. He looked down at the three digimon. They didn't understand that even with the power they had, they couldn't rival the forces turning over inside of him. He had to show them they were outclassed, outmatched. He summoned the darkness boiling under his flesh drawing up to the gun ports in the large, black plates of armor the covered his shoulders.

"Justice Beam!" The red lasers lazily fired from Shakkoumon.

"Desperado Blaster!" the cannons from Paildramon opened up, firing lobs of energy at him.

Silphymon swung his arms in a circle around his head drawing in electro-static energy from the air. The energy swirled into a ball between the digimon's hands. "Static Force!"

The attack energy flew towards him like starving wolves at deer carcass. Magnamon narrowed his eyes and lifted a hand. A bubble of dark energy surrounded him. The attacks pounded the shield in futility. Magnamon closed his hand and drew the darkness back into him. He directed the dark energy into the weapons built into his shoulder armor.

"Magna Blaster!" The gun ports in his shoulders, as well as those in his waist skirt and leg gauntlets opened up.

First a multitude of missiles whistled forward twisting through the air leaving blackened contrails behind them, and then the dark energy itself ripped forward tearing at the air, heating it, electrifying and forcing it to sizzle and crackle. He could hear their groans and roars of pain. Magnamon could feel a smile building on his cheeks. The smoke and darkness twisted in and out of existence and then faded. They were lying on the ground below smoke wafting off their singed flesh. Magnamon clenched his fists preparing to draw the energy up to finish them off. The power was building around the gun ports. His muscles twitched with anticipation, but then that voice shouted into his head.

"_Magnamon!" _the voice screamed in his head like a siren. _"Come to us, we need you, they have Pal!" _

"But…" Magnamon grunted as he looked down at the motionless digimon below.

"_Whatever it is, this is more important!" _ The voice screeched painfully through his brain.

"You are lucky," snorted Magnamon as he opened a clawed hand and released a blast of plasma down at the digimon, "I only get to incapacitate you…"

Magnamon turned and looked around; finding the building his 'masters' had told him they'd be at. He clenched his fists and dove in the direction of the building.

888

"That's odd," Hikari said quietly as she crouched, looking over the edge of the roof.

She and Nefertimon had been looking for Impmon and Ninjamon while the others held off Magnamon. She looked back periodically when a particularly loud crack of thunder roared across the sky. However, the ground is what held her attention. It had since the time the museum on the other side of the street had opened up, revealing a gang of Numemon and an overly clichéd pirate digimon dragging off one of the little digimon that Impmon had been with. The Numemon were carrying a piece of old armor. It looked like the armor she'd seen in books she'd read about King Arthur or even more recently in the Lord of the Rings movie. She narrowed her eyes as she tried to remember what it was called.

"Mail…" Hikari said, snapping her fingers.

"What?" Hikari's partner said slightly startled. The white sphinx was sitting slightly behind Hikari, in hopes of keeping the winged feline digimon out of sight.

"Sorry," Hikari apologized quickly as she watched the Numemon and the pirate digimon retreat down the street. "I think that digimon there…the one in the captains' uniform has the artifact. I think they were looking for that armor mesh stuff."

"That's a Hookmon," the sphinx said as she stood up. "He's a salty digimon that lives on the ocean." The white furred feline tilted her head, "It looks as if Impmon isn't the only one looking for the artifacts."

"It's a good thing that Gennai told us that it was here in the first place," Hikari said as he looked back down at the museum, "He's been surprisingly unhelpful as of late," Hikari stood up and put her hand on her partner's armored shoulder, "Well, Nefertimon, we better follow them."

"Right, Kari," Nefertimon took a step forward and Hikari mounted the white furred sphinx.

Nefertimon gently flapped her large, angelic wings and glided off the roof of the building they'd been using for surveillance. Hikari liked to fly with Nefertimon. She liked the feeling of the wind sweeping through her light brown hair and the feeling of the sun on her skin. Nefertimon swept back and forth in the air catching the air currents as they shifted and changed. Below, Hikari could see the small troop of digimon moving towards the docks. She looked up and saw a large ship moored to the shore. It looked as if it was made of wood, but it gleamed like metal. The prow of the ship was carved in the shape of a giant sea dragon. There was a giant mast that rose up the middle of the ship that held a huge, currently rolled up, canvas sail. At the top of the mast was a bucket, that and a flagpole rose up from the bucket. A black and white flag fluttered lazily from the flagpole. Hikari wasn't surprised when she finally could see that the flag had a skull and crossbones depicted on it.

"That ship," Hikari said as she pointed forward. "The big one."

"I think you should get a hold of the others," Nefertimon said as she fanned her wings, increasing her lift and climbed in altitude. "We better wait, and see what happens…"

"Ok," Hikari said as she reached into her pocket with one hand and pulled out her D-terminal. She tried her best to type out a message while holding onto Nefertimon. "I sent it…"

"Hikari, they're leaving port…" Nefertimon said as she glided upward.

Hikari looked down. Hookmon and his Numemon had already ascended the gangplank and the strip of wood was being drawn back aboard the ship. Huge oars shot out of the sides of the ship and slowly they dipped into the water pushing the ship away from shore. The sail dropped down and there were faint shouts as the bottom of the giant canvas was tethered and tied down. The wind drove into the sail and the canvas bowed outward pushing the ship. After the ship had gotten several meters out to sea the oars were pulled back in and the ship started to recede into the distance, completely under the power of the wind.

"Let's follow them," Hikari said with a nod of confidence. She juggled her D-terminal with one hand, "I'll send a message to the others…"

Nefertimon nodded and swept her wings back diving after the ship.

888

"Daisuke, wait!" shouted Miyako loudly. The brown haired boy winced hard as he listened to the now shrill scream.

"We have to see if the others are fine!" Daisuke said as he skidded around a corner.

It was remarkable how closely the seaside city looked like Tokyo. Most of the villages and Digimon towns he'd seen were either in the style of Old Edo or in the rustic village pattern, not that he'd really noticed that until now, he'd had more important things to think about at the time. It almost worried him that he was thinking about it now, but it was like something on the edge of recognition. He didn't quite realize he was thinking about it, but he also wasn't not thinking about it either. He stopped suddenly and looked up. Shakkoumon was already on his feet. Daisuke stooped forward putting his hands on his knees and taking deep breaths.

Paildramon and Silphymon were already in the air again, but Magnamon was no where to be seen. Daisuke took one large breath and straightened up. The next thing he knew was the fact that Iori was at his side. The shorter boy was scanning the sky.

"Where's he at?" Iori grumbled under his breath.

Shakkoumon hovered forward. "He flew off…and not happily either."

Silphymon alighted on one of Shakkoumon's rounded shoulders. "He flew off towards the ocean…"

"Isn't that the direction the city's museum is?" Paildramon landed in front of Shakkoumon.

"Hikari!" Miyako yelped clasping her gloved hands together.

"I wonder what it was that made him run away," Iori stated as he rubbed his chin.

The wide sleeves of his green kimono slipped down to his elbow. Daisuke looked over at Miyako. The girl was in her antique flight uniform complete with puffy culottes and leather helmet.

"Daisuke…" Miyako started but was fortunately cut off by a sharp beeping. The girl instantly snatched her D-terminal from her pocket. She opened it and read it quickly, "It's from Hikari, it seems some pirates stole the artifact that Impmon and his group were looking for…She says she's following them…and that they've left dock…"

"If Magnamon is working with Impmon and those DemiMamon, then he'll be chasing down that ship…" Iori surmised quietly.

"And Hikari will be in the line of fire!" Miyako shouted loudly. "Daisuke! Say something!"

"It's obvious we have to go after Magnamon," Daisuke said smoothly. He walked up and Paildramon picked him up. "I wish we could've sent someone with Kari…"

"Well, Ken was going to visit Keiko today," Iori said sullenly.

"And you got Takeru sick!" Miyako said, crossing her arms and snorting.

"I didn't get him sick!" Daisuke snapped back. "I told you I bumped him by accident and he fell in!"

"More like pushed…" Miyako said quietly as she walked with Iori toward Shakkoumon.

"I believe Daisuke," Iori stated quietly. The little boy stepped up onto Shakkoumon's lowered hand. "He had no reason to push Takeru in the fountain…unless something happened with Hik…"

"Come on, let's go!" Daisuke said with a huff, crossing his arms and sitting in the palms of Paildramon's hand.

"No need to get cranky," Miyako said as took Iori's hand and stepped up.

"It's kind of frustrating that my so called friends don't believe me and think that I'd hurt T.K. over something with Kari," Daisuke said turning his head away from Iori and Miyako. "Kari and I are friends; that's it. I'm not into puppy love anymore…Now can we go before Kari does get hurt!"

"Silphymon, scout ahead, see if you can find Nefertimon or Hikari," Miyako called out. "If you do, tell her to stay there…"

"Ok, Miyako," Silphymon replied.

Daisuke crossed his arms and scowled softly at the ground. He saw white furred cyborg jet past. He looked up at his partner. The red mask covered most of the dragon's face save the huge reddish-brown eyes.

"Let's go, Paildramon," Daisuke said quietly. He felt the dragon push off and he looked down and saw the ground shrink below him.

He scanned the skyline for Silphymon and or Nefertimon. He didn't see either. The ocean shimmered in the distance obscuring everything over it with glare. A flash of movement caught his eyes. He turned his head and saw a streak of darkness fire through the sky out towards the ocean.

"Magnamon," Paildramon growled.

"Go after him, Paildramon," Daisuke shouted loudly, "before he can get out to sea."

"It's too dangerous, Daisuke," Paildramon returned as he flew. "If he retaliates you could get hurt…"

"Well, if he gets out to sea and happens to run into Kari, he'll kill her!" Daisuke retorted as strongly as he could.

"The docks are nearby. I'll drop you off and go after him," Paildramon said as he tilted his wings and started to descend. A few minutes later the dragon was putting Daisuke down.

Shakkoumon wasn't far behind Paildramon. The clay warrior put the two children he carried on the ground.

"You saw him, too," Iori looked at Daisuke.

"Yes, Paildramon says it's too dangerous for us to ride with them," Daisuke said with a little derision laced into his voice. "

"He's telling the truth, Daisuke," Miyako crossed her arms. "One blast from Magnamon would charbroil us."

"It doesn't matter, Kari's out there, and if Magnamon…" Daisuke clenched his fists. "He'll kill her! I have to know that she's safe!"

"Don't worry," Paildramon said as he pushed off the ground and took flight. "I'll protect her with every last bit of my energy!"

"Me too," Shakkoumon said as he hovered past the children and over the water. The ocean shifted away from the jets that held Shakkoumon's footless legs up.

"Silphymon," Miyako was talking into her red D-3. "Change of plans, we saw Magnamon go out to sea. We have to intercept him…"

"I saw him, too," The cyborg's voice stated. "I'm in pursuit."

Daisuke looked up at Paildramon. The dragon smiled slightly and nodded before trying to give him a 'thumbs up'.

"Don't worry, we'll get to him before he gets to Kari," Paildramon said confidently and he flew off. Shakkoumon drifted after the dragon at a pace that was faster than Daisuke would've imagined.

He grumbled slightly and crossed his arms. He wanted to be there. He knew he didn't make much of a difference physically but he believed that if he was just there that they'd be triumphant that his presence was the difference between a win and a loss. He stood there, watching, as the dragon and the clay warrior disappeared into the glare of the water prepared to wait for their return, when an idea popped into his head. His head snapped up and he turned around suddenly.

"Come on," Daisuke shouted as he ran past the two bewildered looking children.

"Where are you going, Daisuke!?" Miyako shouted as she turned and ran after him. He looked back. Iori was behind her.

"We're borrowing a boat!" shouted Daisuke as he ran down the harbor.

888

Nefertimon drifted back and forth. The ship was below them moving at a considerable clip. The wind out at sea was stronger and strands of Hikari's hair whipped about into her eyes. Hikari closed her eyes and tossed her head, sometimes combing through her hair with her hand, trying to keep the strands out of her eyes.

All in all, it was a magnificent day. The sun was out the air was warm and salty. If it weren't for the fact that she and Nefertimon were in pursuit of a pirate ship that held an old, powerful artifact that was going to be used in an unknown fashion by an agent of darkness, she'd have considered this one of the most recreational flights she'd ever had with Nefertimon.

Hikari was trapped in her thoughts when the first salvo flew past. She was jerked into reality by Nefertimon sweeping to and fro as chunks of pink flew past her head.

"Ugh, Nume-sludge…" Nefertimon grumbled as the pink pieces of excrement shot past.

"Not Numemon…" Hikari said as she pointed downward. Pink skinned gremlins sitting in green trashcans were lined up on the aft end of the ship. They carried red and white striped bazookas. "Garbagemon!"

Nefertimon dove lower and weaved back and forth and finally glided far to the left side of the ship.

"Junk Chunker!" shouted the Garbagemon. The bazookas exploded releasing more Nume-sludge shells. The Nume-sludge flew straight behind the ship, and at a high angel of ascent.

"That's not even close!" Hikari shouted as she tried to rationalize the aim of the Garbagemon.

"They're not shooting at us!" returned Nefertimon. The white sphinx flapped her angelic wings and flew upward slowly coming around. A black comet was shooting towards them.

"Junk Chunker!" Another salvo of sludge flew toward the comet.

The darkness looped and twisted through the flying shells of pink sludge. The comet then shot forward, sweeping upward and flying on a trajectory towards Hikari and Nefertimon.

"Cat's Eye Beam!" Nefertimon shouted preemptively.

The snake's eyes on the sphinx's gold and silver headdress glowed and fired bolts of pink light at the comet. Nefertimon continued a backpedaling glide to keep up with the ship as she fired bolt after bolt of pink energy.

The darkness punched through the pink lasers and crashed heavily into Nefertimon. The sphinx tumbled backward. Hikari felt her hand release from Nefertimon's fur. She screamed as they fell. A few seconds later she felt her body jolt as she collided with the hard floor of the ship. She quickly shook off the jarring pain and looked around. They were on the command deck. Hookmon and one of the DemiMamon were standing by the huge steering wheel. A Numemon with a snail's shell was steering the ship. Salamon was lying on the deck a foot or so away. Hikari looked up and gulped hard. Magnamon was hanging in the air. Impmon and one of the two DemiMamon were on the black knight's shoulder plates.

Impmon and the DemiMamon leapt down onto the deck of the ship. The DemiMamon was shorter than Impmon and plumper. A leather suit barely held the digimon's chubbiness. The DemiMamon flared its wings and flew upward. Impmon, who was slimmer and wingless, clenched his red gloved fists. Hikari looked forward and saw a horde of Numemon wielding shinai charged up a set of stairs from the lower sections of the vessel amid ship.

"Infernal Funnel!" Impmon strained as a giant fireball was produced out of a swirling portal.

The fireball exploded forcing the Numemon to retreat slightly hiding behind what cover they could find. The DemiMamon dove forward on the wing firing bolts of dark lightning at the hiding Numemon. Impmon ran past tossing smaller maroon balls of fire at oncoming Numemon. The slugs, when singed by the flame, squealed and rushed into the shadows of crates. All the while Magnamon was holding the Garbagemon's attention.

"Give my brother back!" shouted the flying DemiMamon.

"Har, har, har…" Hookmon laughed with a gravelly voice. Hookmon had his hook-handed arm around the captive DemiMamon and his cannon arm pointed at the head of said DemiMamon. "I see yer, not a fast learner…"

"I see that you think I've been idle this whole time!" snapped the captive DemiMamon as he stabbed a scroll into one of Hookmon's boots.

Seconds later the boot burst into flame, prompting the pirate digimon to yowl loudly, hopping around and freeing his hostage. The two DemiMamon leapt for each other, arms outstretched. Hikari watched and was surprised to see that they weren't hugging; they were digivolving.

"DemiMamon, fusion evolve to…" The two impish digimon merged, glowing with energy as they reformed into a much more familiar figure. It was a round body with only legs and arms, covered in cross-stitched armor, extending from it. An orange-red mask covered its face. It drew the sword that was sheathed on its back. "…Ninjamon! It's time we got Peter Pan on these guys!"

A flash of movement and a few seconds found several Numemon exploding into dust. The Ninjamon zipped across the command deck and obliterated the defending Numemon. Ninjamon then charged past Hikari and Salamon and slammed his shoulders into one of the Garbagemon knocking it overboard. The other Garbagemon instantly swiveled around and opened fire. Ninjamon was far too fast though so the Nume-sludge ended up striking the other Garbagemon rather than the swift shinobi, and a few more Garbagemon were sent tumbling off the ship.

A bell clanged loudly as a call for re-enforcements shattered the ocean air. More Numemon poured onto the command deck only to be cut down by Ninjamon. Hikari stood up. It was all so much to take in, the clatter, the shifting of the ship, and the zipping movements of Ninjamon. Hookmon was staggering about still trying to get over his case of 'hot foot'. Suddenly Hookmon was driven to the ground. Ninjamon had his curved blade pointed at Hookmon's eye.

"Where are the Scales of the Basilisk?" growled Ninjamon loudly as he grabbed the front of Hookmon's double-breasted jacket.

"It's in the stockade…" Hookmon gulped his eyes wincingly looked at the blade that was so close to it.

"Thanks…" Ninjamon leapt off of Hookmon and landed on the banister of the staircase and ran down the banister.

"If he gets the armor; he and Impmon and Magnamon will run off again," Hikari said, standing up.

"Don't worry, I'll stop them," Salamon nodded sharply as she charged forward. Hikari nodded and grabbed onto her D-3.

"Salamon digivolve to…" The beige puppy-kitten glowed and seamlessly morphed from her rounder, plusher Rookie form to her slightly stouter Champion form a white cat with a long, striped tail. "…Gatomon!"

Gatomon ran on all fours, her green gloved front paws silently pressing on the floor of the ship. Hikari caught a movement in her peripheral vision. Impmon had finished harassing the Numemon and was running towards her.

"Where'dya think you're going?" Impmon shouted as he ran past Hikari. He passed Gatomon and slid in front of the cat digimon. Impmon and Gatomon were about the same size. "You aren't gonna interfere! This is between us and the pirate…"

"I don't think so," Gatomon said as she rose up on her hind legs and curled her front paws into fists. Her ears folded against her head and she bared her teeth.

"What are you going to do?" snorted Impmon as he flicked his finger up and produced a fireball at the tip of the digit.

Gatomon quirked an eyebrow, "I don't have time for shrimps like you."

"I'm not a shrimp!" shouted Impmon loudly. He clenched his fists dispelling the fireball. "I'm not a weakling! For crying out loud I used to rule a seventh of this world! I'm sick of people pushing me around and forgetting me! I'm going to beat you to a pulp! I'm going to make you cry like a little girl! I'm…."

"Cat's Eye Hypnosis," purred Gatomon as rings of energy emanated from her eyes and entered into Impmon's eyes.

"…gonna…take a…nap…" Impmon yawned and collapsed on the ground, snoring.

Gatomon giggled and leapt over Impmon and ran down the stairs. Hikari followed the feline stepping over Impmon. She ran to the railing that overlooked the mid portions of the ship. Ninjamon was still fighting through the Numemon and that in and of itself had slowed him down. The small shinobi cleared a swath of Numemon and turned to run. Gatomon narrowed her eyes and leapt forward tackling Ninjamon. The two digimon scuffled on the ground, rolling on the ground. Ninjamon squirmed free and leapt away. He flicked his wrist, releasing a wave of shurikens. Gatomon back flipped and twisted her body swinging her long tail around her body. The blackened tail-ring at the end of her tail clanked against several of the shurikens deflecting them away from her. Gatomon skidded across the floor as she landed and then launched forward, brandishing her claws.

Ninjamon blocked the first swipe with his arm but the second swipe sliced up across his cheek. The shinobi screeched in shock and pain. Gatomon swung her tail around and beaned Ninjamon in the head with her tail-ring.

"Just because you took the holiness out, doesn't make it any less useful!" Gatomon sneered as she pounced on the staggered Ninjamon.

The two digimon rolled across the ground again. Ninjamon growled as Gatomon pinned him to the ground and glared into his eyes.

"You won't stop us…" Ninjamon snarled angrily. "We aren't going to be deterred."

"And what are you going to do?" Gatomon growled. "I've got you; you're going to jail…"

"Not likely…" Ninjamon chuckled loudly as a satisfied smile played across his lips. "Magnamon!"

"Crud…" Gatomon hissed as she looked up.

Gatomon's body smashed against the wall that was between two staircases that led to the forecastle of the ship. Magnamon touched his feet down and slowly walked past Ninjamon stalking towards Gatomon, who was lying against the forecastle's wall. Hikari put her hands over her mouth. She had to stop him. She was paralyzed; she couldn't move. She shook as Magnamon lifted Gatomon up by the scruff of her neck. The black knight digimon flicked his wrist and Gatomon was sent sailing across the ship to crash against the wall between the stairs leading up to the Command deck at the aft of the ship. Magnamon turned and slowly marched towards Gatomon.

"Stop!" Hikari shouted as she leapt down the stairs, literally sliding down the banister and leaping in front of her dazed, feline partner.

Magnamon seemingly ignored her because he continued forward in a steady, slow pace. Each footstep had so much intensity that it made Hikari wince. She shook but something inside her felt strong. Something felt firm, felt committed. She curled her hands into a fist and closed her eyes. Magnamon stopped in front of her and she looked up at him. His red eyes blazed angrily at her. The darkness washed over her face as the warrior before her breathed in and out. His entire body pulsed with the all too familiar power of Darkness. Hikari looked back to Gatomon who was now kneeling behind her. A bruise was on the feline digimon's cheek from where Magnamon had punched her, and her fur was badly ruffled and portions had a slightly bruised look to them.

"I will finish that feline, you will not interfere, or you will be destroyed," growled Magnamon loudly as he glared down at Hikari. His crimson eyes quivered ever so slightly.

"No…" Hikari breathed softly as she looked up into Magnamon's eyes.

The black knight's eyes twitched slightly. "What do you mean, 'no'?"

"You aren't going to hurt Gatomon," Hikari replied quietly. Her gaze locked on Magnamon's. "You aren't going to hurt anyone…"

"Who's going to stop me?" Magnamon's fists clenched slowly his arm muscles tensed and his eyes narrowed.

"You are…" Hikari stated gently. She closed her eyes. "I can see it in your eyes, you don't want to do this, you didn't want to destroy D'Arcmon, it was an accident…she was innocent, wasn't she?"

"She was in the way!" Magnamon's voice became hesitant as it rumbled jaggedly.

"You are in so much pain…so much pain…" whispered Hikari quietly as she opened her eyes. Her world seemed to glow even Magnamon's darkness was just a shade of gray. "Why so much pain?"

She could see the darkness eddying around Magnamon's body. The shadows and power was just a mask over a very lonely figure hidden in the dark. A quivering pinkish form so familiar but so different was huddling in the shadowy mists.

"My family, friends…my home was destroyed, no murdered," Magnamon explained in a soothed tone of voice breathing in lighter sighs than heaving puffs of anger. "I sacrificed myself to get revenge. I made a pact to gain my power. I now have to do my part."

"The revenge you enacted wasn't for them," whispered Hikari quietly as she lifted a hand up slowly. "It was for you, to stop the pain inside, but that pain it's only gotten worse."

"I can feel it," Magnamon admitted as he dropped to his knees. "It burns so badly this hatred and anger, this sadness and loneliness," Magnamon's armor shook as his muscles quivered, "It threatens to burn me up from the inside, to consume me…I want it to stop…if I fulfill this pact the pain will stop…"

"No, if you continue this, the pain will never stop," Hikari said nearly cutting off Magnamon's sentence, "the pain will never ever stop if you don't stop this…you have to release the darkness, get rid of it, reject the power…"

"I-I can't…" Magnamon's hands were pressed against his forehead. "It's too strong, I can't push it away…"

"Let me help," whispered Hikari quietly. She leaned forward.

"Kari, don't!" Gatomon hissed as the white feline stood up.

A sizzling sound cut through the air and Magnamon roared loudly rearing up, knocking Hikari backward. "Get away from me, witch! What are you trying to do? Take my power away from me!?"

"No, don't give into it," Hikari tightened her lips and her normally soft, chocolate brown eyes became hard and earthen. "It's afraid that you'll reject it. Don't let the fear…"

"Shut up! Shut up!" Magnamon roared loudly shaking his head angrily. His hands dropped down and clenched into fists. "I'll silence you, witch!"

"Kari!" Gatomon pushed in front of Hikari and glared up at the knight as his crimson eyes glared down. Gatomon looked back at Hikari her blue eyes narrowed slightly, "Stay behind me, Kari, I'll protect you…"

"Magnamon…I feel so sorry for you," Hikari closed her eyes.

888

"_Sorry for him? Why would she be sorry for him? He was the one with the power,"_ Magnamon tilted his head.

Suddenly, as if the sun had risen a second time, it became all to clear what the girl had meant. Light exploded from the human child. Light so pure and white Magnamon couldn't deal with it. It burned worse than the darkness in his veins. It tore at him with its purity.

He howled and retreated from the power of the unpleasant light. There would be no escape though, because as he lifted from the pain of the light. He saw them coming. Paildramon, Silphymon and Shakkoumon were advancing. Magnamon clenched his fists. He had to destroy them all. They wanted to hurt him to take away his power. He had to hurt them.

"Gatomon Armor Synthesis Digivolve to Angewomon! The Messenger of Light!" The light had a voice now.

A ball of light rose up to his level. The light condensed into a single form. Eight wings unfurled from the light. A female shape solidified in the light. It was incredibly fit and voluptuous. A white unitard fit tightly over her body, save for the right leg which was bare, her arms and the midriff, which was also bare except where two leather straps were tied over it. A winged helmet covered the angel's fair face, which was bordered by beautiful, blonde hair. A pink ribbon flowed over her head and wrapped gently around her arms. Golden winglets covered her chest. The female digimon extended one of her hands and a pair of wings unfurled from her wrists, forming a bow.

"So are you supposed to frighten me!?" growled Magnamon loudly as he glared at the angel.

The angel didn't speak as the other three Ultimate digimon approached behind her. Magnamon clenched his fists. He couldn't stand this and dove forward. He lifted his fist prepared to knock the smug expression the angel had off her face. The female digimon reached up and a strike of lightning appeared out of the cloudless sky and formed into an arrow in her hand. She placed the arrow in the bow and glared down at him.

"Celestial Arrow!" The arrow quickly returned to its energy form and fired forward.

The streak of light exploded in Magnamon's shoulder, sending the huge armor plating flying into the air. Magnamon hissed as he felt his shoulder burn. He instantly retreated and looked at the angel.

"So you're more powerful than the others…" Magnamon grumbled as he glared down at the female digimon. He wasn't expecting her to be so strong, and especially hadn't expected her to blow off a piece of his armor. "None the less…I will crush you. Plasma…"

The female put her hands together and lifted her arms to the heavens. A ring of energy flowed up her arms and she pulled her arms apart. The ring expanded into the sky. Spectral colors flowed inside the ring.

"Heaven's Charm!" The spectral colors flooded the sky and drizzled down over Magnamon.

His muscles tightened. The darkness that flowed through his veins froze. He couldn't move. He looked down at the angel as she calmly gazed up at him, no emotion playing over her face. The female turned her head to the others.

"Put your strength into the ring…" The angel commanded as she turned her head back and gazed up at him. "You're persistent darkness will be erased. May you be reborn…"

"Desperado Blaster!" Paildramon fired his hip cannons into the ring, the bolts of energy merging with the aural energy.

"Static Force!" called Silphymon as the hawk-human cyborg swept his arms around drawing in the electrical energy into his hands and then ejecting it upwards.

Shakkoumon lifted its oval head and squinted its eyes. A pair of crimson beams fired into the circle. "Justice Beam!"

After the red lasers were absorbed into the aural ring it shimmered and shrunk and exploded down to the angel woman. She caught the energy in her hands and produced another arrow. She armed the bow with the arrow and looked up at Magnamon.

"May your suffering end with the release of this arrow," Angewomon pulled the arrow back.

"It can't end like this!" Magnamon growled as he shook in his constrained state. "I haven't finished my revenge! I haven't repaid my debt!"

The arrow fired from the bow. Magnamon felt time slow down. Hours filled heartbeats. He could hear them playing, his family and friends, the other Koromon. He could hear their screams of joy and mirth. Then something stabbed his stomach. Magnamon was jarred awake. The arrow hadn't hit. It was hovering in front of him, trapped in an orange-red bubble that surrounded him. He looked down. A scaly, orange shuriken was embedded in his stomach.

"_Move! Idiot!" _ shouted the familiar voice in his head.

Magnamon shook his head. The barrier was cracking; it couldn't hold the arrow back much longer. Magnamon shunted to the left as the arrow exploded, shattering the barrier and buzzing past him, slightly singeing his flesh.

"What…is…?" Magnamon spluttered as he looked around. Down on the ship a small shinobi was carrying Impmon over his shoulder.

"_You have the Scales of the Basilisk on you," _growled the voice in his head. It wasn't a single voice like Magnamon had first thought but rather a pair of fused voices of this two DemiMamon masters, _"We used a transformation spell to save you, now get your butt down here and pick us up, before they shoot you out of the sky!" _

Magnamon blinked and suddenly realized that another arrow was coming in his direction, accompanied by spitfire bolts of energy and lasers and static charges. Magnamon instantly dove downward. He jetted towards the ship and in one fell swoop snatched the shinobi and Impmon and curved back into the air. The ninja snatched the shuriken from Magnamon's stomach.

"You can digivolve…" Magnamon said as he narrowed his eyes.

"Now's not the time," the shinobi shouted. "Get out of here!"

"They will pursue…" replied Magnamon.

"Then make them stop!" shouted the shinobi.

"Ok…" Magnamon lifted and arm and opened his leathery hand. "Plasma Shoot!"

A stream of black, ionized energy engulfed the pirate ship. The shinobi gaped as he looked from the ship up to Magnamon's face. Magnamon closed his eyes and turned flying towards the eastern horizon.

888

"This is so wrong," murmured Iori as he hung over the railing of the yacht that Daisuke 'borrowed'.

"We'll bring it back!" Daisuke looked back at the younger boy. "So far everything's gone well…"

"Well!?" Miyako screeched. The girl was passing back and forth. "You stole a yacht, and then just because that wasn't enough you rammed it into a dock, a buoy and then, to top it off, another boat!"

"I told you I didn't know how to drive it! I didn't see you helping…" Daisuke turned his head back to the front of the three-sided cabin glaring out of the large glass windshield. The yacht wasn't that large; but a small one, in fact there had been larger ones at the pier but considering Daisuke had nearly sunk the one they 'borrowed' it was probably best they'd only taken a small one. Daisuke glared back to the two other children riding with him. "I thought it'd be like a motor boat…my dad and I have gone boating…once…"

"Oh yes, because one time boating on a weekend qualifies you to steer a yacht out to sea after a pirate ship," Miyako snarled as she took a step forward and glared into Daisuke's brown eyes.

"Talking of pirates…I wonder if we can find a plank for someone to walk off of!" Daisuke growled back leveling his angry eyes on Miyako.

"Stop making empty threats, Daisuke!" Miyako glared back at the boy.

"I'll show you empty…" Daisuke fumed as he started to stomp forward.

"Oh yeah!" Miyako curled her fingers into a fist.

"Guys!" Iori jumped up and pointed upward. "Smoke up ahead!"

"Hikari!" Daisuke and Miyako shouted simultaneously and dove for the controls.

"Get off me, Miyako!" shouted Daisuke as he pushed and shoved Miyako away from the throttle.

"Don't be bossy!" Miyako retorted as she slapped Daisuke's hand. "And watch what you're grabbing!"

"I bet you don't say that to Koushiro-san," Daisuke said slyly but immediately regretted it as a hand shaped burst of red appeared on his left cheek.

Iori sighed and wedged himself calmly between the two, squabbling, older children and gently pushed the throttle up until it covered a bar that said 'Full'. The pitch of the yacht's engines rose and the boat jerked forward sending Daisuke and Miyako toppling over each other. The two screamed loudly and then tussled on the ground trying to disentangle each other. Daisuke howled as Miyako pinched, bit and slapped him and the young 'lady' shouted when Daisuke hit her shin with his foot.

Iori shook his head and put his hand on his forehead, "This only proves that 'Age is no guarantee of maturity'…"

It took about five minutes but Daisuke and Miyako finally pried themselves apart. Miyako's glasses were off kilter and her hair was every which way but straight. Daisuke's goggles some how got smacked over his mouth and his tan face was covered in red, black and blue blotches from being slapped pinched. The two of them were glaring at one another, heaving angrily their arms hanging limply and their legs slightly bent, struggling to hold them up.

"I can see Shakkoumon…" whispered Iori as he looked up. Whilst the two of them had fought he'd found a crate was using it to look over the large wheel. "I think we should be there in a few minutes."

The two digi-destined blinked and looked at the little boy with the short brown hair. "You…" They both were taking deep breaths, "learned how to drive it?"

"It's pretty idiot proof…" Iori said as he hopped off the crate. "It was made for the rich and seemingly lazy…and they are kind of close to what Submarimon's controls are. The only difficult part was concentrating over your fighting…" Daisuke and Miyako blushed brightly, briefly disguising their minor injuries with flush. Iori walked past them his hands behind his back, "You know, considering how much you both care for Hikari-san and that you both want to protect her…you'd think you'd have worked together rather than bickered the whole time…"

"I hadn't…" The two children said together and then blinked.

"Thought of that?" Iori offered with a smile. He turned and looked up at the two of them. "Daisuke, bring the throttle down to a quarter. You just take the stick next to that drum with the words Full, three fourths, half, quarter and zero and pull the stick to one quarter. Miyako, use the steering wheel and turn us to the right...until we're parallel with Shakkoumon."

"Aye!" said the two children as they stood up straight and ran for the steering wheel and throttle.

Iori sat down on a convenient deck chair that had survived Daisuke's crash coarse in yachting and Miyako and Daisuke's battle royal. He looked up and watched as seagulls glided in the sky. The smell of burning overpowered the sea. They approached Shakkoumon. The large clay digimon had his arms outstretched. A grimace was on his haniwa face. It took Iori a bit to figure it out but upon closer inspection he noticed the multitude of Numemon sitting on his partner's arms. A digimon in a captain's suit was sitting on a shoulder as was Hikari and Nyaromon. Silphymon and Paildramon were hovering behind the titanic digimon. Iori stood up and looked out the windshield of the yacht. In the distance was the sinking image of an old-style European galleon. Smoke and flames were rushing up towards the sky.

The ship floated to a stop and Daisuke and Miyako walked out of the cabin of the boat and looked up.

"Did you get him!?" shouted Daisuke loudly, cupping his hands over his mouth.

Shakkoumon bent forward and let Hikari, the navy uniformed digimon and Nyaromon down. The clay digimon winced as the Numemon slid off of him.

"No, he got away," Hikari sighed quietly as she picked up Nyaromon. The yellow ball of feline snuggled close to Hikari. "It was close though. It was a good thing that Shakkoumon was here or else we'd have all drowned."

The Numemon were squirming all over. Hikari smiled and put her hand on them, much to Miyako's distaste.

"Eww, yuck!" Miyako grumbled as she looked at one of the green slugs nuzzling against Hikari's hand.

"They aren't so bad…once you get to know them," Hikari said with a smile. A soft glow flitted between Hikari and the Numemon. "Some of my best friends are Numemon. Actually these guys are kind of like my heroes. They may look like defenseless bits of slime but when they get together, they can be a lot tougher."

"Magnamon destroyed the ship didn't he?" Iori said with a frown. "I don't understand how someone with so much power can be so reckless."

"I wouldn't blame him," Hikari said, standing up. "I don't think he wants to do this, but the power he's gotten is forcing him to do these things. He's kind of like the Numemon; he's not really that bad once you get to look at him. He's in a lot of pain and he's confused and angry."

Paildramon and Silphymon glided over the yacht and de-digivolved back to Veemon and Hawkmon. The two Rookie digimon ran to their partners and gave them hugs.

"ARr, could ye see it yer harts to go and find me other crewmembars…" The uniformed digimon said as he walked forward. He had a hook hand and a cannon arm.

"The Garbagemon," Hikari said quickly. She looked at the others.

"I'll get them," Shakkoumon said as he glided away towards the burning wreckage of the ship.

A few minutes later the large, clay digimon returned with an armful of garbage cans. Shakkoumon dropped the garbage cans onto the yacht. The cans shook and opened revealing a pink creature within. Shakkoumon finally glided up to the yacht and de-digivolved to Armadillomon. The sandy shelled mammal loped forward and hugged Iori.

"I'mma really going to need a bath tonight, Iori," said the armadillo. Iori giggled and nodded.

"Ms. Inoue," Iori chirped as he looked to Miyako. "Bring us around." The girl nodded and turned around. Iori turned to Daisuke. "Mr. Motomiya forward full speed. We're going home!"

Daisuke hopped to just as Miyako and retreated to the cabin of the yacht. The ship slowly turned as the engines whirred to life. The engine's whir lifted in pitch as the ship sped up.

Hikari looked at Iori in fascination, "What happened…what did you…?"

"More like what did I say," Iori smiled proudly as he looked at her with his green eyes.

Hikari quirked and eyebrow but didn't say much more. Iori offered her a chair to sit on and sat down. The two sat and smiled quietly. For all the action of the day, the fighting, the bickering and the explosions it still was a pretty sunny day.

888

"You could have digivolved and saved my family and friends…" Magnamon growled as Pul and Pal dragged the Scales of the Basilisk up to a huge circle.

On the circle a front on image of a dragon that was carved. The dragon was glaring down at them through a pair of golden and jewel encrusted glasses. Jeweled claws glinted in the chamber light. A red jewel was projecting outward from the chest of the dragon and now the armor mail was being pinned to the stomach of the dragon etching.

Pul looked back at Magnamon, "You shouldn't concern yourself with our abilities."

Pal was staring up at the dragon his eyes scanned over the carving of the wings. "Just the Wings of Quetzalcoatl now, well, that and."

Pal's eyes fell on the empty carving of a pair of huge fangs that fell from the dragon's slightly opened mouth.

"Yes, soon our plan can go forward at full speed," sighed Pul quietly as he turned. He looked up at Magnamon. "What are you still doing here?"

"Why were they killed, if you could've saved them, why didn't you?" Magnamon asked in desperation.

"Isn't it obvious muscle head?" Magnamon turned and looked down at Impmon. The little lavender demon smiled up at him. "You wouldn't've joined us if there weren't no reason. Heck, who's to say the Gotsumon even killed your family and friends, could've just been a rogue group of angry digimon…"

"Impmon, shut it!" Pul growled.

"Eh, stuff it," Impmon said waving his hand. "He'd find out anyways."

"Find out what?" Magnamon looked back and forth between Pul and Impmon.

"We created those digimon that killed your village, and then we had you maliciously murder a village of Gotsumon." giggled Pal quietly as if it were all some April Fool's joke. "Oh we got you! We fooled you good!"

"WHAT!?" Magnamon roared loudly as he clenched his fists and glared at the three digimon that with him. "Why would you do that!?"

"I suppose it's about that time." sighed Pul quietly as he looked back at the pillar. Everything behind the pillar was enshrouded in deep, impenetrable shadows.

Pul snapped his fingers and the chamber filled with light. The dragon carving was actually part of the central pillar of the chamber. The chamber's ceiling was almost invisible it was so far up. Magnamon eyes wandered down the walls and noticed that the walls had three huge statues carved out of them. They were three giant dragons. The dragon in the middle was the largest. It had two, blade-edged arms and a pair of tattered, bat-like wings. Its head was spiky with knobs along its jaw-line and lips as well as horns that projected from its head. The dragon on the left looked much less frightening, bit of an amalgam of creatures. It had a goat like head with curved goat horns, the body of a Dachshund, large clawed paws, and the wings of an angel. The last dragon had a masked face with its horns twisted into its mask. Its hands were clasped in prayer. It had three pairs of heavenly wings holding its legless body.

"What scheme are you working?" Magnamon asked venomously as he looked at the three dragons before him.

"We're slowly returning things to their original format," replied Impmon quietly. "Now, you can either join us in this new, old world order we're creating or you can be destroyed."

"You destroy me?" Magnamon scoffed quietly as he looked at the small imp. "I will crush you and your family as you destroyed mine!"

"Don't forget, Magnamon," Pul said quietly as he lifted his scepter. "Those that grant great power, can take it!"

Magnamon howled loudly as his head felt like it was being split in two. The intense, searing pain that ripped through his body forced his muscles to convulse.

"You see, we needed you because you're as strong as a Mega but encoded simply enough for me to control." Pul remarked offhandedly as he walked around Magnamon, who was now laying on the ground in a fetal position. "Unfortunately there was still a risk that you would break free, we couldn't allow that. So we soaked your hands in the blood of the innocent to bind you to the powers we gave you. If the darkness is hurt; you'll feel the pain race through your body like needles through your blood vessels."

"You…tricked me…all for…" Magnamon's eyes hazily glanced up at the statues.

"Yes, for the Great Dragons," Pul said quietly. "We need them. They are the only ones that can grant our wish."

"Even though they won't want to!" giggled Pal as he danced around Magnamon's quivering form.

"That's the perfect part of this plan. We won't have to lift a finger," whispered Impmon. "If all goes right, those protecting this world will plunge it into darkness."

"I won't help you…" Magnamon crawled up to his knees.

"Tsk, acting like you have a choice," Pul said, his voice laced with amusement. "Magnamon, it's too late. If you confess your sins they'll just delete you, but if you stick with us, no one will remember one village's massacre."

"So whaddya say?" asked Impmon as the little imp looked up at Magnamon.

"My power is my crux…" Magnamon winced as he got to his feet. He glared down at Pul, "and I am your…unwilling servant."

"Perfect," Pul said smoothly as he smiled up at the dragon statues.

888

"Are you sure, Daisuke?" Taichi asked over the phone. He leaned back against his desk chair, his brown eyes passing over the assorted notebooks and study texts scattered randomly across his desk, some in mounds other in studious alluvial plains. All in some kind of educational chaos that recapitulated the boy's mind when it came to school.

He listened as Daisuke reaffirmed the group's ability to 'handle the situation'. His eyes then flicked over towards his bed where his sister was sitting with her plush, beige puppy-kitten sitting on her lap. Taichi nodded slightly and said goodnight before hanging up the phone.

"Daisuke said we can handle it didn't he?" Kari asked as she patted Salamon's head.

"That was obvious don't you think?" Taichi replied quietly as he placed the phone on top of a knoll of sports magazines that rose out of the floodplain of study that had inundated his desk. Taichi leaned back and entwined his fingers onto his stomach and looked to his little sister.

"I had hoped maybe, he'd have taken up the offer." Kari said quietly, she gently drew her arms around Salamon. "If he thinks we can handle it though…"

Taichi took a deep breath. "You don't think you can?"

"Magnamon isn't just another digimon, he's powerful, far more powerful than normal," Kari said quietly as she looked up at her brother, "and this Magnamon is ruthless, but there's something more to him, something tortured. I don't know, I feel like we could if we could get through to him, on the other hand…"

"If you want I can come with you. I don't need Daisuke's permission to go to the Digital World." Taichi said, he looked to the wash of school preparation that swept over his desk. He narrowed his eyes. "Maybe, I should have been going with you guys. It's my responsibility after all, WarGreymon could clean this whole situation up rather quickly and maybe we should've been helping more since the beginning, rather than…"

"You can't blame yourself for this. Your exams are important." Kari said, in a pleading tone. She looked to the ground and sighed slightly. "It's our responsibility, too. I had hoped that Daisuke may be willing to take up the offer, but Daisuke is kind of our leader in this and he has his pride. It would be wrong for me to go behind his back." She scratched gently behind Salamon's ear. "We'll wait and see what happens when TK joins us." She looked up to Taichi. "Plus, we don't know how they would respond to WarGreymon…" The thought percolated in her head and she shivered as she thought of a potential, Dark Digi-core powered Mega digimon rampaging through the Digital World. "Maybe it's best if we don't try to escalate the situation with WarGreymon."

"If you need anything, send me a message." Taichi said, standing up from his chair and walking over to his sister. She looked up at him. He smiled and then looked stern. "I'm serious, anything at all and I'll come with Agumon and we'll clean this up immediately." He turned to the desk and then looked back to his sister and smiled. "Now get out of my room, I've gotta study before Izzy sends his next twenty chapters on theoretical geometric calculus or something."

She giggled, nodded and stood up, carrying Salamon in her arms. She left the room closing the door behind her.

"Are you sure you don't want Agumon's help, Kari?" Salamon asked looking up at her partner. "Your brother is right in that WarGreymon could likely clear this all up in an afternoon."

Kari took a deep breath. "Tomorrow, TK said he'd be joining us. We can only hope that with him with us we can end it. Like I said, while WarGreymon may be able to clear the situation, he may also just exacerbate it as well…."


	7. The Wings of Quetzalcoatl

**I don't own digimon**

**The Wings of Quetzalcoatl **

**888**

"Thank you, Ken," said the woman quietly as she smiled at the dark haired boy. Her hair was long and dark. The eyes were soft and caramel brown but the look of worry seemed to poison the cozy feeling such eyes would've given. The woman wringed her hands in the blue work dress she wore. "Keiko has been so…sad since her…friend died. You've really helped. She wouldn't go to school but over the last week or so that you've been with her she's actually offered to go to school. I'm so worried about her. First was that whole thing with that Oikawa and now this…"

"Don't worry, Keiko will be fine," Ken said with a weak smile. "She's doing very well."

"It's because she has such nice friends like you," the woman said with a smile.

Ken blushed slightly and looked down, "Well, I wouldn't say that, a lot of it has to do with her own strength…I just give her something to build off of."

"Well, I suppose I best start making supper," said the woman quietly. She looked at Ken and smiled. "You have a wonderful day, Ken."

"Yes, of course ma'am," Ken bowed quietly as the woman took a step back and closed the door.

Ken sighed and walked down the hall to the steps. He sighed as he walked down the stairs his book carrier slung lazily on his back. Everyday he came over to Keiko's home after school, everyday he had Koushiro look to see if her partner's digi-egg had returned to one of the four Primary Villages in the Digital World and everyday he held Keiko when he found out that Salamon's egg wasn't back. He hated the feeling he had when he saw Keiko's eyes well up with tears. The hopelessness of the failure, the surrender to the possibly that Salamon may never come back and the utter annoyance to the fact it was taking so long all seemed to weigh down his heart. Every night he'd get a little reminder from Daisuke that the others were still going to the Digital World to try and find Magnamon, Impmon and Ninjamon.

He bit his lip slightly as he opened the door to the outside world and stepped out onto the busy sidewalk. Adults in business suits, teens in uniforms and T-shirts washed past him like water in a river. He waited for an opening and slipped into the flow of the people. Daisuke had talked about Hikari unlocking the Digimental of Light's power earlier that week. The other digi-destineds' subsequent attempts to find the evil digimon had resulted in nothing much more than thistles and nettles getting caught in their clothes. Takeru was getting better too and Daisuke said he'd be joining them today.

He stopped at the corner of the block and looked up, waiting for the streetlight to change. It changed and he walked forward, lost in his own little world as people swirled past him. He quickly recapped in his mind what had happened over the last month and a half.

Firstly, Ninjamon and Impmon stole the Dark Digi-core and used it to resurrect Skull Greymon and they had all gotten their digimentals back and Ken himself had gotten the Digimental of Kindness. Then over the course of the month, Ninjamon and Impmon had stolen a group of old artifacts that had special powers.

Ken furrowed his brow and whispered quietly to himself, "But why…why steal them?"

The question was a valid one. The digimon had used the artifacts' powers only limitedly and the powers of the artifacts were not that world shattering, only the Dark Digi-core seemed to have any use as a super weapon and even its surprising strength had been used in a lackluster manner. The only example of its true strength being used was in the creation of Magnamon.

Ken frowned at the thought of Magnamon. He was a frightening figure and they seemed to only use him as a shield. If they were trying to take over the Digital World they were doing it in a very roundabout way. Ken stopped in mid-step and thought for a second. People bumped him from behind and glared at him but he didn't notice them.

"Maybe they aren't trying to take over…" Ken whispered quietly. "That makes sense. But why go through all this effort? Even if they were gathering the objects for someone else…the artifacts aren't nearly powerful enough to make any difference in any gambit to take over the world. Unless their powers aren't the artifacts' true purpose…"

Ken's eyes widened slowly. It was slowly starting to come together. The artifacts had a hidden power underneath the superficial one. The question was what was this deeper power and why would Impmon and his entourage wish to have it.

Ken's pocket beeped. He reached into the gray pants of his school uniform and pulled out the D-terminal. He flipped open the top of the little communication device. He sighed quietly and closed the device sticking it back in his pocket.

The message had been from Daisuke, saying that they were already in the Digital World waiting for him. He looked up and sprinted forward through the people. They'd located the last artifact, thanks to Gennai. Ken furrowed his brows. That was a second mystery that he'd yet to understand.

Gennai had been unhelpful ever since this had started. Ken knew that the digital human, as Koushiro termed Gennai and his clones, hadn't always been consistent in his helpfulness, but this was stretching inconsistency. A number of occasions Koushiro had made blatant pleas for assistance in stopping the thefts of the artifacts and regaining the Dark Digi-core, only to be met with silence or ignorance on the subject. Now, however, Gennai was being more than helpful and was actually giving them coordinates to the objects. It all seemed very suspect.

Ken approached the door to his apartment building. He quickly ran into the building and rushed up the stairs. He ran to his parent's apartment and opened the door. He quickly was rid of the book carrier. His mother was home and he made a quick salutation to her and rushed to his room. Minomon was in his room and immediately leapt at him. Ken caught the pine cone encased grub and hugged him as he turned and with one hand opened the Digi-port program. Seconds later he lifted his D-3 and his room was filled with light as the inter-dimensional portal flashed opened.

The light faded and Ken landed on his feet. Wormmon crawled up next to him and looked up with his large eyes. The sun shone in the clear, blue sky. It was warm and dry. The ground was covered in small, browned shrubs. The earth below was cracked and parched. It seemed to be made out of some kind of reddish clay and before him the earth dashed downward into a crevasse. A huge canyon was at Ken's feet. It was at least three miles wide and within it stood huge pillars of stone capped with giant boulders.

"Not very hospitable looking is it?" mumbled Wormmon as the green caterpillar scrambled to the edge of the rock face.

"No, it isn't," Ken said as he looked over the edge. He pulled out his D-3 and looked at the screen. It confirmed the fact that the others were already down at the bottom of the canyon and a few kilometers north. "There is a Digi-port a few kilometers to the north…they must've used that one."

"Maybe we should've too," Wormmon said as he looked over the ridge of the canyon.

"The portal was still open…" Ken said as he looked down at Wormmon. "Must've been Miyako."

"Well, let's go then," Wormmon said as he turned back to Ken.

Ken nodded and it wasn't long before he was airborne, riding on Stingmon's back. The large vespid warrior buzzed forward sweeping around the huge pillars of rock. The group of red dots on Ken's D-3 burned brighter as they got closer. Ken could see Angemon hovering regally in the air next to Angewomon. The two, heavenly digimon were covered in a white body suit. ExVeemon was standing next to Daisuke, and the flame jacketed goggle-head was already arguing with Miyako. There was a bright flash and a large, brick-colored eagle rose into the air. It swung its head around with huge curled horns sweeping around with it. Ankylomon was on the periphery of the group with Iori. The little boy was sitting on the hard, armored back of the golden-yellow digimon.

Ken searched the ground and finally saw Takeru. He was standing next to Hikari. Takeru was in his normal dress, a yellow and turquoise shirt, floppy, Gilligan hat and beige shorts, but this time he also wore a pale blue muffler around his neck. Hikari was rolling back and forth on her heels and every once in a while would reach out and adjust Takeru's muffler. Stingmon landed gently on the ground and Ken jumped down on the ground.

"Hi Ken!" Daisuke said quickly as he leapt forward, quickly forgetting whatever fight he was having with Miyako. The pink haired girl in the antique flight suit huffed, crossing her arms.

"Hey, Daisuke," said Ken with a smile as the brown haired boy stood in front of him beaming like he'd just seen the largest dessert ever. Ken turned and looked at Takeru. The blonde haired boy smiled back. "How are you?"

"I'm ok, but my mom is very fussy," said TK with a smile. "As it was, it was a fight to go back to school."

"My mom's kind of the same," Ken said with a smile as he rubbed the back of his head.

"We should get going," Angemon said from the air in his authoritative voice. "We don't know how long we'll have before Magnamon appears."

"We know he's coming?" Ken asked in surprise as he turned to Daisuke and the others.

"He's been seen in the area…" Iori said from his perch on Ankylomon.

"Then there is no time to waste," Angewomon said sharply in her normal, shrewish but motherly tone.

"We'd have gone ahead, but we didn't want to leave Miyako behind…" Daisuke said with thinly veiled accusation.

"I told you, I got caught up with my parents," Miyako shot back, angrily. Her eyes narrowed and she bared her teeth. She lifted a clenched fist, "Some people actually have lives outside of the Digital World…"

"Are you saying I have no life!?" Daisuke shouted as he glared at Miyako.

"Daisuke, Miyako," Hikari walked between the two glaring digi-destined children. She was in her white and pink tank-top and khakis. Hikari lifted her hands, placating, and looked back and forth at the two children. Hikari's eyes fell on the tan boy. "Daisuke, say you're sorry for yelling at Miyako…"

"But…I…" Daisuke spluttered. Miyako stuck her tongue out at him with a wide 'I won and you lost' smile.

"Miyako…" Hikari turned her head. Miyako instantly sucked her tongue back in and covered her mouth with her gloved hands. Hikari sighed quietly, "Miyako, say you're sorry to Daisuke…"

"What!? Why!?" Miyako yelped loudly as she flustered, waving her hands.

"Because you've said some very rude things about Daisuke, many of which simply aren't true…" Hikari said softly. She turned to Daisuke and looked him in the eyes, "and you need to remember that not everyone can get here the fastest…Miyako has to walk home and go through her parents and get to the computer before her sisters and brother. So, it's ok if she's a little late and you need to simmer down about it…"

The two digi-destined children sighed quietly and looked at the ground like two punished puppies. Hikari's face wasn't angry and her voice was nothing but soft and yet the two most stubborn of the digi-destined were cowed.

"I'm sorry…Miyako," Daisuke whispered almost inaudibly. "I shouldn't be so…mean to you…"

"Well, you should be sorry, you have no idea…" Miyako started but Hikari turned her head to the pink haired girl. Miyako stopped and sighed quietly, "I mean to say, I am sorry, too, Daisuke. I did not mean to scream at you."

"Very, good," Hikari said quietly with a smile. She turned to everyone and beamed. "Well, can't sit around here and gab…"

"Hikari's right," Takeru said as he looked up at the sky. "What with this evil Magnamon in the area and that artifact nearby, it would be a bad idea to sit here and do nothing."

"Now, that's a plan!" Daisuke shouted thrusting his fist into the air. ExVeemon shook his head and gently picked up the child.

"Daisuke, this could be dangerous," said the bipedal, blue dragon as it flapped its large, white wings. The leathery skinned reptile lifted off the ground and hovered back and forth on the shifting breeze.

"If everything that was dangerous made me run, we'd not be where we are today," Daisuke said with a smile. He looked up at ExVeemon, "We'd be under the slimy foot of MaloMyotismon…or Daemon…or any number of evil digimon."

Aquilamon rose off the ground carrying Miyako. The girl looked over at Daisuke. "Daisuke probably right, though I'm sure we'd have figured something out…eventually…."

"In a way, Daisuke is able to turn the most dire of situations into the most hopeful," Takeru said with a smile.

Angewomon and Angemon, carrying Hikari and Takeru glided close to the brick-red eagle. They all looked down at Iori. The boy smiled up at them.

"Awww, shucks, I wish I could have wings like the rest of yeh all," Ankylomon grumbled as he looked up at the other digimon.

"We should keep up with them," Iori said as he hopped down. He lifted his D-3.

Ankylomon smiled as he accepted two glowing energy bursts that flew toward the large ankylosaur. A few seconds later a giant, earthen titan rose up. The giant leaned forward and carefully picked up Iori and put the boy on his shoulder. A pair of clay wings swept back and forth on the clay warrior's back.

"Ok, let's go already," Daisuke shouted impatiently. "Ninjamon could already be there!"

"According to Gennai, the artifact is about five kilometers to the north," Miyako called out, looking at her D-3.

"Then off we go! To save the world!" Daisuke shouted pointing forward.

The group of digimon and digi-destined flew off together. Ken smiled quietly to himself. The in-fighting and anger that always seemed to rend their group apart but they rarely had times when they actually ever were at risk of falling apart. Stingmon buzzed forward to assume a position next to ExVeemon. Daisuke smiled and waved happily at Ken. Ken could only smile broadly and wave back. Daisuke had that effect on people. He turned his head. Angemon and Takeru were on the other side Takeru's muffler flapped in the wind. Takeru had a serious look on his face. Ken looked forward. Takeru was, in many ways, the same as Daisuke. The only difference was the projection of intensity. Daisuke thrust all of his rage, and feeling outward, but Takeru pushed everything inward. Neither ever gave up, and both always put everything they had into protecting their friends and family.

"Hey, Ken," Takeru's voice shouted out across the air between him and Ken.

"Yes?" Ken looked up at the blonde.

"This Magnamon, how powerful is he?" Takeru asked as he looked over at Ken.

"He defeated DinoBeemon," Ken called out as he put he scratched her head. "He's much more powerful than an Ultimate digimon, at least any Ultimate digimon I have observed in any detail."

"He's been able to push us around pretty easily," Aquilamon said as he flew between Angemon and Stingmon.

"But we weren't all together either," ExVeemon stated loudly. "The last time we fought; we didn't have Angemon or Stingmon's Ultimate form with us."

"This will be the first time we'll fight him together," Shakkoumon said as the clay titan hovered on legless feet.

"With any luck, we'll be able to finally defeat Magnamon," Angewomon called out. "And put his tortured soul to rest."

Takeru frowned at Angewomon's words. Ken knew what the frown was about. He'd seen that same frown a number of times when he first started to truly hang out with Daisuke and the others. It was Takeru's hatred for darkness, and his distaste for any empathy for that darkness.

"Guys…" Miyako's voice shouted out. The children turned their heads to the pink haired girl. Miyako pointed upward. "We have company!"

Ken looked up. A dark contrail was cutting across the blue sky. The digimon quickly scrambled toward the edges of the canyon and put the children down.

"The object is there…" Miyako said as she pointed to a large pillar of rock.

"Then we should set up a defensive line in front of the artifact," Ken said as he swept his arm out pointing at the pillar.

"Shakkoumon can hold the defense," Iori said with a smile as the clay titan moved into a position in front of the pillar.

"Angemon, back up Shakkoumon," Takeru nodded as he looked up at the sky.

Ken lifted his head. The dark contrail was curling around. Ken looked back to Takeru. Ken then looked to Daisuke.

"I think it's time we go up a notch," Daisuke said with a smile. He lifted his D-3. Daisuke looked to Ken and then to Miyako.

Ken nodded with the girl and lifted their D-3s.

"Stingmon Armor Synthesis Digivolve to…" The humanoid wasp warrior's hips swiveled forward, swinging its torso forward. Stingmon's head remained as his body bulked up and was fitted with emerald armor. The green gauntlets of Stingmon's arms broke free revealing huge, blue, muscular arms. The insect's wings expanded and buzzed loudly as it hovered in the air. "…DinoBeemon, The Strong Heart of Kindness!"

"Aquilamon Armor Synthesis Digivolve to…." The eagle glowed as his body changed considerably. It took on a humanoid shape with a visored head and white furred body with legs like those of a bird of prey. "Silphymon, The Warrior of Love and Sincerity!"

"ExVeemon Armor Synthesis Digivolve to…" The blue dragon with the crossed sword tattoo on its chest flickered with energy as his wings split into six. Green armor covered the dragon's torso and black gauntlets covered the dragon's arms and legs. A red helmet fell over the dragon's face and a pair of cannons materialized at the dragon's hips. "…Paildramon, The Thunderous Firestorm of Friendship and Courage!"

"Here he comes," Silphymon stated angrily as he clenched his clawed hands and looked up at the sky. The black contrail was now a dark comet that was diving towards them.

"Shakkoumon, brace for impact!" Angewomon shouted loudly as she thrust her arm forward and released the winged bow that was at her wrist. The female angel plucked an arrow of light out of the air and swept it into the bow.

Shakkoumon spread his arms, holding them out wide. The comet plummeted through the air twisting through the atmosphere. Shakkoumon and the other digimon braced for some sort of impact, but the comet halted in midair. A bubble of black bobbed in the air a pair of blood-red eyes glaring at the accumulated digimon. The bubble hesitated for a second and then drilled forward smashing past Shakkoumon and tossing Angemon to the side. The bubble faded revealing the three figures within it. Two smaller digimon leapt off the plates of shoulder armor of the third. The third digimon was Magnamon. The two other digimon were Ninjamon and Impmon. They landed on the flat rock that balanced on the pillar where the artifact was housed.

"Stop those two!" shouted Takeru loudly as he pointed at Ninjamon and Impmon. Angemon dove towards the two smaller digimon.

Magnamon appeared in front of the male angel, "My masters will not be impeded by the likes of you…"

A swift backhand repelled Angemon and Magnamon snorted as the other Ultimate digimon dove for him. His black, armored hands and shoulders tensed and he curled his clawed fingers into fists.

"This ends here…" Angewomon said as she lifted her arms up. A circle of light rose into the sky. "Heaven's Charm!"

"Just like last time!" Paildramon called out, "Everyone! Send your power to Angewomon!"

"Static Force!" Silphymon clawed the air stripping it of electrical energy and then flung the crimson bolts into the circle.

"Justice Beam!" Shakkoumon squinted his ceramic eyelids and fired red beams into the light.

"Irritant Buzz!" DinoBeemon's wings blurred and thrummed with energy which rippled forward into the light field.

"Hand of Fate!" Angemon clenched his fist and the golden shackle on the angel's wrist glowed as he punched forward firing a golden ray of energy into the circle in the sky.

"Desperado Blaster!" Paildramon swung his cannons up and fired bolts of energy into the light.

Angewomon glared down at Magnamon. "This is your last chance to surrender…"

"I have nothing to live for," Magnamon said as his eyes narrowed. "You can not harm me any further. This world is without sympathy, without compassion…I will not accept your false empathy…Strike if you wish, but you shall not harm me…"

Ken looked at the other children. Most of them were tensed for the explosive fight to come. Hikari, though, was looking on worriedly. Her hands were clasped gently and she was biting her lip. She looked like she was going to cry.

"That poor, poor heart…" The girl looked up and her eyes fell on Ken's. "He's given up. The shadows are growing around him…"

"May you be soothed." Angewomon said as she lifted her arm. The circle of light in the sky condensed into a rod and sliced down into her hand. The arrow swept down and touched Angewomon's feathery bow. "Celestial Arrow!"

"Something's not right…" Ken whispered as he felt a sudden chill flash through his body.

His head snapped up and he turned to look at Hikari. The girl clasped her hands together tightly and shivered. He turned his head back. Angewomon's arrow cut the air; a flare of light burned behind the projectile. Magnamon swept his hand forward. The air pulsed. Ken felt pressure run through his body. The holy arrow hung in the air motionless.

"The shadows swallow the light…" Magnamon stated quietly as he clenched his fist. The arrow cracked and exploded into silvery glitter. Magnamon drew his clenched fist to his chest and closed his eyes as the destined digimon encircled him. The blackened, royal knight opened his eyes, "And swallowed light turns into power…"

"GET BACK!" shouted Iori loudly.

Ken was only a second behind the younger child, but it was too late. Magnamon thrust his opened hand forward and streaks of lightning flashed forward from his palm. The bolts whipped out lashing the destined digimon with their own strength. Shakkoumon was the closest and was thrown backward against the canyon walls. Angemon's wings were singed as the energy sliced past him. Angewomon and Silphymon were snatched by the same bolt and rammed into Paildramon. DinoBeemon was struck by three separate bursts of energy and the loud chopping sound of the huge insect's wings coughed and hiccupped like a helicopter that was hit by a rocket propelled grenade. DinoBeemon crashed into the ground a cloud of dust flying up from the crash.

"Wormmon!" Ken ran. He was sure the others were rushing to their partners.

The air felt cold and the wind seemed to shift eerily as he ran. Ken skid to a halt as he looked down at his partner. DinoBeemon huffed as he rose to his feet. The prehistoric insect's emerald armor was dented and scorched but the DinoBeemon seemed ok.

"I'm ok, Ken," said the insect in a bass warble.

Ken sighed in relief. "I'm glad…"

"Right now we have to get past Magnamon to stop Ninjamon and Impmon…" DinoBeemon stated as his wings started to sweep in an up and down motion. The wind swirled as the giant, armored insect rose off the ground.

"It may be prudent to out maneuver him than to outright beat him," Ken said as he looked back toward the canyon. Magnamon hung in the air lazily glaring down at the other digimon as they rose to their feet.

"I'll keep him busy…" DinoBeemon snorted loudly. The bug started to throb with energy. "Hell's Masquerade!"

"Wait!" yelped Ken as his partner turned into a pink energy burst. DinoBeemon charged forward as a bolt of energy.

Magnamon dove out of DinoBeemon's way. As DinoBeemon shot past, Paildramon flew upward and clenched one of his fists. The fist became engulfed in orange flames. Magnamon tilted out of the punch's way and then thrust upward as DinoBeemon swept back around. Silphymon blurred into existence behind Magnamon. The royal knight swung around sweeping an armored foot into Silphymon's stomach. The cyborg crashed into the oncoming titan, Shakkoumon.

Angewomon swept one of her hands forward, a ruby light enveloped around the female angel's hand. "Queen's Paw!"

Magnamon dropped out of the way of the shards of red crystal. Magnamon rolled to the left as DinoBeemon past again, the rose contrail of the dino-insect shimmering past one of Magnamon's ears.

"Hand of Fate!"

A golden beam burned into Magnamon's back. The armored digimon whipped around and charged towards Angemon. The male angel wasn't going to back down and twirled his golden staff in his hand and thrust forward. The air fled the scene of the impact rippling laterally away from the staff as it smashed into Magnamon's fist. Angemon propelled himself backward as Paildramon unleashed a barrage of spitfire energy bolts towards Magnamon's turned back. Magnamon grunted as his body was racked with tremors as the energy bolts pelted him.

The knight twisted around and roared loudly thrusting his hands forward. A single pulse of air flew forward smashing into Paildramon. The larger dragon was punched by the air and arched backward as he rose and fell in a gentle arc.

"Celestial Arrow!"

White light zinged past Magnamon's face.

"Justice Beam!"

Two lasers smashed into Magnamon's chest, but the knight barely flinched.

"Double Star!"

Energy shurikens buzzed forward but Magnamon just tilted his head left and then right, avoiding the toothed blades. DinoBeemon was still in his energy form. The large pink comet of energy swept around and dove for Magnamon. The black armored digimon lowered his head and took a deep breath. Magnamon clenched his fist and threw a punch. DinoBeemon twisted backward returning to his solid state. The huge insect twisted and tumbled backward as it was propelled backward.

"I feel no pain…" Magnamon stated loudly. "Unlike you…nothing makes me wince or retreat…I will not be chased away…to get rid of me…you'll have to destroy me!"

Angewomon and Angemon lined up next to each other. The two angels looked at each other and nodded. Angemon clenched a fist and Angewomon brought her arms together in front of herself.

"Hand of Fate!"

"Heaven's Charm!"

A rose bow of energy shot forward as Angewomon spread her arms. A rod of golden light slammed into the back of the bow pushing it forward. It was like a giant arrow. The combined attack smashed into Magnamon throwing the knight into the wall on the far end of the canyon.

"Plasma Shoot…" Magnamon's voice rumbled through the air like a distant thunder storm.

The next thing Ken knew the air was filled with balls of black plasma that was being shot into the air like mortar. Angewomon flew through the air, twisting as multiple bolts of plasma struck her white wings and fair skin. Shakkoumon was drilled into the canyon by a tidal wave of dark energy. Paildramon jolted and jerked as plasma erupted across his body unending. DinoBeemon and Silphymon tried to avoid the bursts, but it was like trying to avoid raindrops during a downpour. Angemon was using his staff to produce a shield of holy energy.

Paildramon, Shakkoumon and Silphymon crashed to the ground, reverting to their Rookie forms, Veemon, Armadillomon and Hawkmon. Angewomon and DinoBeemon weren't far behind them crashing to the ground and reverting to Nyaromon and Minomon respectively. He and Hikari ran to their In-Training partners. Veemon, Hawkmon and Armadillomon took up defensive stances in front of Daisuke, Miyako and Iori.

The black monsoon of plasma halted. The far cliff across the canyon shook and the rocks crumbled as Magnamon rose into the air. Angemon quickly placed himself in front of Magnamon. The angel turned his head. Ken looked up at the stony face of the angel, whose eyes were covered by a steel helmet.

"Takeru, take the others…get them out of here!" Angemon's voice shouted loudly. "I'll hold Magnamon here!"

"We can't leave you," Daisuke shouted back in irritation.

"Daisuke, you can't stay, Magnamon will kill you," Takeru replied as he looked up at the brown haired boy.

"But Magnamon will thrash Angemon!" Daisuke spluttered as he thrust an arm upward at the angel. "You're going to let Angemon kill himself!? What kind of partner are you!"

"Daisuke…" Hikari gasped. The toffee-brown haired girl looked up at Daisuke with wide eyes.

"I won't let Angemon kill himself," Takeru said sternly through gritted teeth and clenched fists. Ken took a preemptive step back, everyone did, even Daisuke, who added a gulp to his trepidation. Takeru's blue eyes glared up at Daisuke, "Now, get going to the digi-port, Angemon and I will hold Magnamon…"

"But…" Daisuke started.

"It would be silly to stay here…" Iori called to Daisuke. "We'd just be targets. With us gone Angemon can focus his defense…"

"Iori's right!" Ken shouted knowing it was true. Ken also knew that Daisuke may ignore Iori. Ken however knew Daisuke would never ignore him. "Angemon's best off without us in the way!"

"There's no time to argue," Takeru looked over at Daisuke, "We'll hold Magnamon, go on!"

"Ok!" Daisuke shouted with exasperation. He grabbed Veemon by the hand and pulled the small, blue, wingless dragon behind him. "Come on you guys! Let's go! We're moving out!"

Ken ran, carrying Minomon in his arms. Hikari was running next to him. She kept looking back, worriedly. Ken allowed him a few glances. Magnamon was just hanging in the air and Angemon was only holding his position with his staff held across his chest defensively. Miyako and Iori were slightly behind Hikari. Miyako had Hawkmon by the wing and Iori had somehow gotten Armadillomon onto his back and was piggybacking the armadillo digimon.

"There's a digi-port…about twenty meters ahead," Ken shouted as he looked at the others. "This area is actually a place where three sectors converge…there are digi-ports everywhere…"

"Miyako," Daisuke looked back, "Message Takeru the second you touch foot in the real world."

"Right, Daisuke," Miyako chirped with no arguments.

Ken nodded slightly as he saw the antenna of the television digi-port. Daisuke had already seen it and had his D-3 ready. There was a flash of light and then they were in Daisuke's school. Miyako whipped her D-terminal out and started to type. The message was sent and all that was left was to wait for Takeru's reply.

888

Magnamon hovered in the air in front of Angemon. The others had already retreated. Takeru looked back to make sure. He knew Daisuke hated running away, but it was the only way to keep them safe. Takeru looked up at Magnamon. It was also the only way he could make sure that they didn't get in the way of Angemon.

"Why?" Takeru growled under his breath as he looked up at the blackened Magnamon. "Why do you listen to digimon like Impmon and Ninjamon?"

"They are all that I have left," Magnamon whispered quietly. "My family, my friends….my home are all gone…they are my masters. My power, it comes from them. I owe them…"

"Owe them?" Takeru gritted his teeth, "You mean they force you to do these things? You don't have to do anything if you don't want to…"

"I want to…" Magnamon replied quietly. "Oh the death I've seen, the death I caused…the pain my masters inflicted upon me…."

"They hurt you?" Angemon this time chimed the question in. The grimace that appeared on the angel's curled lips was all that was needed to see that Angemon was disgusted. "And you still listen to them?"

"Yes," whispered Magnamon as the armored knight looked down into the depths of the ravine. "At first I wanted to kill them…but then I realized…if it weren't for them, I'd be pathetic and weak like my family and eventually I'd be killed because I was weak…." Magnamon looked up, "Now I do not need to fear such a fate. I will never be murdered by those more powerful than I. When I realized that, the rage I had towards my masters faded. I accepted the fact that I was tricked into murdering, tricked into accepting the pain of the darkness, and tricked into serving those beneath me.

"This world is about power, those that have it live, those that don't die. There is no empathy for the powerful, no sympathy for the weak. The shadows swallow and the light burns….there is no hope…both sides lose in an engulfing inferno of good and evil."

"You're wrong," Takeru whispered as he looked up at Magnamon. His eyes trailed over the sharp edges of the knight's armor. The wide shoulder plates, the gauntlets and breast plates and even the armor around the knight's waist were jagged. The black metal seemed to suck in all light around it. Takeru looked into the red eyes of Magnamon, "Hope is the only thing most people survive on. No one can take that away…"

"Hope only causes pain…it is false, a lie," Magnamon retorted. He clenched his fists. "If that is what you are trying to sell to me, then you will not find a buyer in me…"

"How can you live without hopes and dreams?" Takeru asked looking up at the dark digimon. "What kind of existence can you live? Even the darkest hearts have hope…"

"Hope is for those too weak to survive alone," the knight growled as darkness swarmed around him. "Power is the only sure thing…you wish to stop my masters; then I must stop you."

"You'll have to go through me first!" Angemon said, reaffirming his presence.

"You, you're nothing," Magnamon opened his hand. "An angel in a world of darkness, holiness in a world of sin…you are but a spark, a flicker…now stand aside. Your acquaintances have become a persistent thorn in my masters' sides and they wish to have them removed."

"They are my friends, and you aren't getting your hands on them!" Takeru clenched his fists. "If you want them, get through me first."

"Fine…" Magnamon's palm filled with dark energy. It twisted in the air like an angry snake. "Plasma Shoot!"

"Hand of Fate!" Angemon dove in front of the plasma stream.

The darkness pierced the stream of golden light and struck Angemon's fist. The angel groaned as his knuckles burned. Magnamon smirked and dove forward, smashing his fist into Angemon's stomach. Angemon lurched forward his chin colliding with Magnamon's lifted knee. The angel crashed to the ground at Takeru's feet.

"Your blond bombshell's a dud," Magnamon snorted as he glided forward. Angemon rose up on his elbow but with a swift kick Magnamon dealt with the angel. Magnamon stood over Takeru. "Your hopes hurt that digimon."

"Hand of Fate!" Light swept up from the ground. Magnamon leapt backward as a beam of golden light burned between Takeru and Magnamon. Takeru blinked as Angemon flew forward. "I chose to protect TK. He's my friend, my partner. I couldn't imagine a world without him. You may not have anything to live for, you may not believe in hopes and dreams, but that does not give you the right to crush the lives, the dreams, or the hopes of others!"

Angemon clenched his fist and a bolt of light burned into Magnamon's chest thrusting the knight off the cliff and over the ravine of the canyon. The black armored digimon snarled as the light flowed over his body.

"This is all you have!" shouted Magnamon. "That's it! HA!"

"We have more than you could ever hope to deal with," Takeru whispered as he clutched his D-3.

"Magna Blast!" A wave of darkness fired from the gun ports of Magnamon's armor.

"Angemon!" Takeru shouted as he watched the darkness swarm around the angel.

"Hopes are always crushed in the face of true power," Magnamon looked at Takeru. "Meaningless wishes…if you find such things important…then you shall be crushed with them."

"Angemon…" Takeru looked up at the shadows that occupied the place Angemon had held. "I refuse to believe that he's gone again. I'm not giving up on him…come on Angemon…come on…"

"He's gone!" Magnamon snarled. "Stop this futility!"

"It's not futility!" Takeru hissed loudly. "Angemon!"

Takeru looked down as his D-3's screen glowed. The Digimental of Hope materialized into his hand. He lifted the golden egg-shaped object with orange wings. The digimental glowed and turned into a crest symbol. The crest fired forward into the shadows.

"Angemon Armor Synthesis Digivolve to…" A lavender blade sliced the shadows. Eight wings flashed open. An angel erupted from the darkness. He was bulkier and more muscular than Angemon. A purple mantle fell over the angel's head. Golden sashes crossed his chest. "MagnaAngemon, Harbinger of Hope!"

"I see…" Magnamon said with a snort. "Even with you, it is meaningless."

"You still maintain that the forces of Hope can be defeated," MagnaAngemon spread his wings. The wings darkened. "Star Shower!"

Meteors flew forward exploding into Magnamon. The knight crossed his arms trying to block the stars. Magnamon returned fire releasing missiles and plasma towards MagnaAngemon. The Ultimate angel sliced through the darkness with a swipe of his lavender energy sword. Magnamon snorted and dove at MagnaAngemon. The angel lifted his sword and the two forces clashed. The ground shook and the sky sparked with lightning.

Takeru fell to the ground and looked up. MagnaAngemon and Magnamon were locked together. One of Magnamon's gauntlets was holding MagnaAngemon's sword and MagnaAngemon was holding back Magnamon's free fist.

"Deadlock…" A spherical form with a pair of huge wings rose above the two grappling digimon. Takeru looked up.

"Ninjamon!" Takeru narrowed his eyes.

"And Impmon," replied the shinobi and hoisted his arms up, pulling Impmon up. Ninjamon flapped the wings attached to his back. "And the Wings of Quetzalcoatl…."

The wings looked like screen paintings Takeru had seen in museums. They were made of folded paper with golden metal spines. Each web of screen between the wings metal digits had a different scene. Each scene was about dragons.

"You got it…" Takeru spat as he glared up at Ninjamon. "What are you going to do with those things?"

"Child, if I were you, I wouldn't worry about that…" Ninjamon retorted as he dove down to the ground and dropped Impmon at Takeru's feet. Ninjamon landed gently. "If you'd kept your nose out of this, nothing bad would've happened, but no, you digi-destined had to interfere and so we had to rape and pillage this world and the digimon in it."

Magnamon kneed MagnaAngemon in the stomach and broke the stalemate. MagnaAngemon fired a Star Shower at Magnamon forcing the knight to retreat, slightly.

"Don't blame us!" Takeru shouted clenching his fist. "You're the one that created Skull Greymon! You're the one that has been taking control of digimon and hurting others. We've been trying to contain your damage!"

"Damage?" Impmon asked as the little demon stood up and dusted himself off, adjusting the red ascot tied around his neck. "Yous talk as if you've seen something horrible….you don't know a thing…wait until you've seen your family taken away from you, your world taken from you then you can talk damage. You think that just because someone doesn't toe the line that that worm, Azulongmon made that they are the problem! Have you ever considered that the world may have been better before that rotten snake came to power!?"

"Azulongmon is the protector of this world, he would never let it be hurt," Takeru growled as he glared at the little imp.

"Heh, that's just his side of the story, and let me say it's not near the full truth," Impmon smirked. "Azulongmon and his brothers were scheming worms that tricked the original rulers of this world into a horrible war that left this place devastated….and it's never been stable since…"

"Magna Punch!" Magnamon and MagnaAngemon's battle erupted upwards. The two faced off. Takeru gulped as he looked up.

"You made Magnamon think life and hope is meaningless," Takeru stammered looking from Impmon to Ninjamon to Magnamon. "That can't be right…"

"We didn't make Magnamon think anything," Ninjamon stated simply, the wings on his back twitching slightly. "We may have put him in a position to think that, but his hopelessness was his own design. To force hope on someone that doesn't want it is the same as to force violence on the peaceful….or to force oppression on those that wish to be free."

"No!" Takeru shouted loudly as he looked up at MagnaAngemon and Magnamon, "It's not the same! You can't live life without hope! It's impossible!"

Magnamon roared forward. MagnaAngemon sliced his sword across the oncoming knight. Magnamon twisted backward as a portion of his armor flew free from his body. The knight hung, hunched, in the air, glaring up at MagnaAngemon.

"The kid's right…" growled Magnamon. MagnaAngemon, Takeru, Impmon and Ninjamon all looked up in surprise. Magnamon clenched his fist. "Even I, who desire nothing, wishes for nothing….has one dream…one hope…and I will fight until I have attained that dream…"

"There is no need…" MagnaAngemon looked at Magnamon. "Cease your work with Ninjamon and Impmon and you'd be free to get whatever desire you have."

"Ninjamon's spell does not allow me to have this one desire," Magnamon shook his head, lifting it and looking at MagnaAngemon. "And you will not give it to me without a fight…"

"What is it?" MagnaAngemon asked sternly, "whatever it is I will give it to you…"

"Death…" whispered Magnamon. "I cannot kill myself. I must be destroyed and even then, I cannot simply allow myself to be destroyed. It must be at the hands of those more powerful than I. Ninjamon's mind spell forces my survival on me…"

"You can't want to die!" Takeru shouted loudly. "You can't!"

"I have no family, no friends, nothing," Magnamon replied without letting his eyes off of MagnaAngemon. "My life is tortured by the burning darkness that courses through my veins and I am a slave, with no hope of savior." Magnamon clenched his fists. "So I must fight and kill and destroy until I find the one opponent that can kill me! Magna Punch!"

Magnamon thrust forward. MagnaAngemon used the flat of his sword to slap the knight backward. MagnaAngemon lifted his blade arm and stabbed the sword into the air.

"What are you doing!?" Takeru screamed as he looked in shock at MagnaAngemon. The angel cut a circle into the air. "You can't do this! This isn't the meaning of the crest! You can't let him give in!"

"Gate of Destiny!" MagnaAngemon dropped back as the circle turned into a golden portcullis. The doors to the gate opened revealing a silvery body beyond the gates that looked like a lake of mercury. The wind swirled into the gate. Magnamon put his arms up to protect himself from the glare.

"Magna Blast!" roared the knight as he fired missiles at the gate in futility. Magnamon growled loudly and tensed all his muscles. Darkness swarmed around the knight as he was dragged towards the gate against his actions. "I…can't….let…this…happen….Magna Explosion!" A black wave of energy erupted in all directions from Magnamon's center of gravity. The gate still stood but Magnamon had exhausted his power and hung limply in the air as the gate sucked him in.

"NO! STOP IT!" shouted Takeru loudly. "Close the gate! Don't kill him!"

"Shush…" Ninjamon snickered. Takeru blinked as the sound of Ninjamon's voice came from behind. "Let Magnamon have his peace."

"TK!" shouted MagnaAngemon as he spun around.

"Nuh Uh, pretty boy," Ninjamon snarled. Takeru could feel Ninjamon's breath on his neck. "One false move and the poor boy gets turned into expensive sushi…"

Takeru blinked as he felt cold metal being pressed against his throat. He looked back. Ninjamon had snuck around on him whilst he was trying to get MagnaAngemon to get rid of the Gate of Destiny. Ninjamon was hovering on his wings holding a dagger against Takeru's throat. Takeru shifted his weight but Ninjamon's blade only pressed harder on his throat. MagnaAngemon looked down at Takeru his expression conflicted.

"You won't get away with this," Takeru growled.

Ninjamon chuckled quietly, "Now, boy, you know better than that, as you just saw the world doesn't follow your lily white philosophy. Hopes and dreams work in so many ways, and your way isn't always the best just think of the peace you gave Magnamon…"

"That was warped and wrong," Takeru gritted under his breath. His fingers curled around his D-3. Takeru dropped his digivice and kicked it. "MagnaAngemon! Take the D-3, get the others!"

"Impmon! That's our ticket to the Human World!" snapped Ninjamon. Impmon leapt for the D-3 but it flew over his head. MagnaAngemon caught the digivice and looked down at Takeru.

"Go! Fly! Get the others!" shouted Takeru loudly.

The angel hesitated but turned and flew away.

"You…." Ninjamon snarled as he kicked Takeru to the ground. Ninjamon landed on the ground. "I'm going to skewer you!"

Takeru's pocket beeped loudly. Ninjamon pointed the dagger at Takeru's pocket.

"It's my D-terminal." Takeru said as calmly, even though his ears thrummed with the pumping of blood in through his veins.

"Impmon." snarled Ninjamon, angrily as he waved the dagger at Takeru's pocket.

Impmon grumbled and walked up to Takeru and pulled the D-terminal out of Takeru's pocket. Impmon fumbled with the device and finally opened it. The green eyed imp looked up at Ninjamon.

"We may not need to get to the Human World." Impmon looked up at Takeru, "We should just keep our hands on the boy and hold him for ransom, the price one pair of swords."

"That could work…" Ninjamon smirked happily as he walked forward and grabbed Takeru by his muffler. "You're coming with us…and you'll send a message to your friends to bring the swords to us…or else!"

Ninjamon yanked and dragged Takeru behind him. Impmon walked alongside Takeru, smirking happily.

"Ya know, kid, this may all come out all square after all…" Impmon looked to the sky and started to whistle a tune.

888

It had been hours since Patamon had returned without TK. Yamato paced back and forth. The others were there now, Izzy, Jyou, Taichi, Sora, Daisuke, Hikari, Miyako, Ken and even Iori.

"It's settled then, we're giving them the swords for TK," Yamato said sternly as he looked over the others.

"But, we can't just give in!" Daisuke snapped, "If they get the swords then it's over!"

Yamato glared at the brown haired boy and pounced grabbing him by the front of his vest jacket, nearly lifting the young goggle-head off the ground, "You listen to me. I don't care if giving those guys the swords turns the world into a flaming pile of dog crap, we're getting my brother back; do you hear me!?"

The other children looked down afraid to look at him. He didn't care, TK was in danger. He wasn't going to let some smart-mouthed brat tell him he couldn't save his own brother.

"But…" Daisuke stuttered loudly; sweat beaded on his brow and temple.

"I said, 'do you hear me!?'" Yamato growled as he tightened his grip on Daisuke's jacket.

"Yamato, I don't think this is the time for hysterics." Izzy said as calmly and nonplussed as possible.

"My brother is in the hands of some digimon, and all the digimon want are a couple of dusty swords," Yamato growled as he turned his glare on the cinnamon haired boy with the yellow laptop. "I don't give a damn about hysterics! I want my brother safe!"

"I've got the swords," Iori stated quietly as he lifted a brown cloth. "We may as well tell them we're giving them over."

"When I get my hands on them!" Yamato felt the anger seething inside of him. He didn't even realize he was still holding up Daisuke until he had dropped the boy.

"Yamato, calm down," Taichi commanded nonchalantly. Yamato glared at the spiky haired teen.

"Calm down? How can I be calm!?" Yamato growled.

"We'll get him back," Sora said. The girl smiled. Yamato looked at her. Her short athletic hair was cut just above soft amber eyes, it was difficult to stay angry and seething when faced with that, but he gritted his teeth.

"Guys…" Izzy spoke worriedly as his laptop chimed. "We have an email from Gennai. He wants to see us, all of us. Mimi's already with him with our partners."

"There's no time!" Yamato growled glaring at the computer and then at the boy behind it.

"Now, now," Jyou spoke up. The young man had gotten quite a head of hair since he entered high school, enough so that it was almost long enough to tie into a pony tail. "If Gennai wants to weigh in on this it must be important, and it won't hurt."

"Let's go then," Hikari pushed forward. "Izzy can we use your laptop?"

"Sure…" replied the boy as he put it on the floor.

"Everyone, behind me," Hikari stated as she stood up and pointed her D-3 at the computer screen. Yamato filed behind Hikari, with Taichi and Sora at his sides. The others filed in behind them and Hikari pressed a button on her digivice. "Digi-port open!"


	8. Hill of Megiddo

**I don't own Digimon**

**The Hill of Megiddo, Armageddon Rising**

**888**

Takeru staggered forward as Impmon pushed him roughly. He looked upward. A huge mountain seemed to rise into the air, though it wasn't a mountain. It was more rounded, like a mound. Ninjamon had de-evolved into two DemiMamon. The winged imps fluttered towards a huge arch that was carved into the bottom of the mound.

"Where are we going?" Takeru asked as he walked forward. His hands been bound behind his back by Ninjamon, using vines.

"This is the place of the great reckoning," replied Impmon. The wingless demon walked confidently alongside Takeru. "The place where it began and it ended, the end of the stability, the beginning of a thousand years of burning…"

"What are you talking about?" Takeru stopped and looked down at the purple furred digimon.

"Did I say you could stop?" Impmon snarled as he lifted a finger, producing a small flame. Impmon then jabbed the flaming fingertip into Takeru's side. The blonde yelped and jumped forward. Impmon's emerald eyes sparkled with an angry pleasure at Takeru's pain and slowly followed the boy.

"Dear Impmon is talking about the final betrayal of the Great Demon Lords by the Four Great Dragons," One of the DemiMamon stated as it turned around, gliding backward. Its chubby body barely contained by the black leather suit it wore. "It was also here that Azulongmon betrayed his brethren with the help of the original Digi-destined and sealed them within this very mound."

"That doesn't make any sense!" Takeru retorted as he walked forward. "All the Harmonious Ones are still alive, they work with Azulongmon! I've met them!"

"Brother Pul," the other DemiMamon giggled and looked back at Takeru, "Isn't it cute how ignorant these children are of the world they are supposed to be protecting?"

"Yes, Pal, most amusing," The first DemiMamon said with a smooth, amused tone. The first DemiMamon, Pul, looked Takeru in the eyes. "Azulongmon is first and foremost a Great Dragon, and then a Harmonious One. He overthrew this world's stability twice and now it is in a state of near anarchy. We are going to stop this entropic downfall, by returning this world to its previous setting."

"The others will come, they'll stop you!" Takeru growled through his teeth.

"I doubt it…" Pul said confidently as he turned his back on Takeru. "If they bring their digimon to the meeting place, if I catch a whiff of foul play, you'll be killed."

"Even if I die, the Harmonious Ones will never allow you to complete your goals," Takeru was quick to return verbal fire even though the winged imp's words were rather surprising in their bluntness.

"You put so much stock in those four imbeciles," Pul said without turning. "Even they do not know the full extent of our plans. Whether they act or not will only prove to push our plan forward."

"Why are you gathering those old artifacts?" Takeru asked figuring that he had nothing better to do since he couldn't get free and his captors were being talkative.

"Azulongmon and the Digi-destined did not have the power to destroy the Great Dragons," Pul stated quietly as they came to the large arch.

The two DemiMamon landed in front of the giant doors that sealed the arch closed. Pul walked forward and put his hand on the door. There was a flash of lavender energy and the doors slowly swung open with a grating creak that shook the mound and caused dirt and soil to rain over Takeru, Impmon and the DemiMamon.

"I invite you, child, to go forth and see something that no human has seen in over twelve hundred, Digital World years," Pul extended his hand and smiled coyly as Impmon prodded Takeru forward pushing him towards the arch. As Takeru passed, Pul put his staff in front of Impmon and Pal. "You two stay out here, wait for the other digi-destined to arrive. I wish to show our guest the forces at work. Ee have to prepare him for the fight that is to come…"

"And if they attack?" Pal whimpered, wringing his hands together.

Pul sighed in annoyance and opened his hand. A black sphere formed in his palm and he tossed it to Pal. "I'm sure you'll find a suitable candidate for the power of the Dark Digicore."

888

"I don't understand why I couldn't go with Daisuke and the others," Yamato fumed as he walked with the other 'older' digi-destined through the forest.

"I understand that you're worried about T.K.," Koushiro said as he looked at the blonde haired boy, "but we may only get in the way. The enemy holds all the cards, one false move and they could…"

"I think we know what they could do," Taichi cut the cinnamon haired boy off.

Taichi looked up at Yamato. The blonde wore a worried expression on his face. His eyes were almost vacant as they searched out the empty space in front of him. His hands were in the recesses of his jeans' pockets and his face muscles were rigid and tense.

"Don't worry Yamato," Sora said as she maneuvered closer to the young, teen idol. She gently put her arm across his shoulder and drew him into a walking embrace. She laid her head on his shoulder. "Hikari and Daisuke wouldn't let anything happen to T.K."

"Well, we hope not," Jyou said as he rubbed his chin. "I mean Daisuke can be a bit…what's the word…"

"Impulsive? Hard headed? Rash? Erratic? Impudent? Short-fused? Abrupt?" Koushiro rattled off words as he looked back at the dark haired high schooler.

"No…more like…" Jyou took his glasses off and nibbled at the end of one of the ear hooks and then looked up, "Reckless…"

"Guys, Daisuke is not going to get T.K. killed," Taichi glared back at Koushiro and Jyou. Taichi then looked back at Yamato. Taichi's friend was even tenser and Taichi thought he saw a slight shiver or shake to Yamato's hands. "Daisuke and his group can get T.K. back, so let's all stop this fear mongering and getting all worked up."

"We should be close," Koushiro said as he took out his D-terminal. It was a newer model. "In fact through this line of trees we should come out on the beach of the lake…"

The group of older digi-destined pushed through the green bushes. They stepped into the clearing. Almost instantaneously they were assailed by a group of small monsters. A yellowish orange miniature tyrannosaur pounced Tai. A reptile with a striped, blue-furred cloak jumped Yamato. A pink bird catapulted into Sora's arms. A white seal with a red Mohawk and lavender polka dots sent Jyou to the ground. Koushiro smiled as a red ladybug with spiked wing covered buzzed next to his shoulder.

"Hey guys!" The digi-destined looked up as a girl with straight, reddish brown hair ran towards them. She was wearing soft rose colored jumper with matching skirt, running next to her was a green digimon with a flower on its head.

"Mimi, my you've let your hair go straight again," Sora noted as she looked up from under Biyomon's hug.

"Yeah, curls just became too much of a hassle," the girl said as she flicked her hair, "Not only that but straight hair's come back in vogue…"

"Where's Patamon?" the reptile in the blue, fur cloak whispered as he helped Yamato up.

"He's with the others, Gabumon," Koushiro stated as he walked forward. In front of the cinnamon haired boy was a small lake. He stopped and turned back, "Have you talked to Gennai yet, Mimi?"

"Yeah, I told him that he should get something on the beach, you know like a guest house…" Mimi sighed in exasperation, "Maybe something with a bit of a gothic touch…maybe something with a Parisian air to it…Paris is coming back in fash…"

"Please…will you please stop," Yamato grumbled as he pushed past the other digi-destined and stood next to Koushiro at the edge of the water.

"Well, aren't we a little grumpy?" Mimi snorted.

"Mimi!" Sora nudged the girl in pink sharply. "Did you forget about Takeru?"

"Oh…isn't he with the others?" Mimi blinked looking at Sora.

"No, he got captured by those evil digimon," Jyou said shaking his head. "I'd have thought that Gennai would've told you…"

"It must have slipped his mind," Mimi said looking down at Palmon.

"Slipped his mind!?" Yamato spun around, "How could he just forget about T.K.!?"

"One human in a sea of people," A voice boomed from the lake as the ground shook. "Plus I have other things on my mind."

The lake split down the middle, revealing a set of stairs. A tall man in beige robe was ascending the stairs. A hood was over his head, covering his eyes. The man lifted his hands to his hood and drew it back. He had brown hair and blue eyes that twinkled softly in the sunlight.

"How can you just…" Yamato squeezed his hands into fists. "He's my brother!"

"And he's alive," Replied the man loudly as he put his feet on ground level with the other children. "Don't try to out guilt me, I've lived longer and I've lost more."

"Why have you called us, Gennai?" Taichi walked forward, he was nearly as tall as the man.

"Oh a handful of reasons," Gennai said as he looked at the spiky haired teen. "I've gotten the projector set up in the house, so let's descend into the depths…."

The children and their digimon looked at each other and then followed the young man as he started back down the stairs. Since they had met Gennai, they'd only ever been to his house once, and that was to rest after Myotismon's first attack against them. It was still unnerving for them to walk between two walls of water that were held back by seemingly nothing. Jyou and his partner, Gomamon, straggled behind the others. The white seal kept stopping to talk to the fish that swam past the staircase.

"We'll leave you, if you don't hurry," Gennai chirped as he stepped off the staircase and onto the small brick path that led across a moat and garden to a single story house with sliding, screen doors.

"Come on, Gomamon, I don't want to have to swim," Jyou called back to the seal.

"Aww, but this fish has a good joke about a bishop, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk in a bakery…" Gomamon whined as Jyou left him behind. The seal turned back to the fish, "Sorry, maybe later, ok?"

The fish jerked away and disappeared into the shadows of the lake. The seal then hopped down the rest of the stairs and rushed after Jyou as the young man crossed the bridge over the moat.

Jyou closed the screen door after Gomamon loped into Gennai's house. Gennai walked into a more interior room. The children had been in the room before. It had been the room Gennai had shown Myotismon's initial invasion of Earth. Gennai swept his hand out for the children to sit down. The digi-destined obliged the man, their partners sitting next to them.

"First off, I apologize for my heartlessness when it comes to your situation with Takeru," Gennai clasped his hands in front of himself and bowed slightly.

"Let's just get to business," Yamato snorted as he looked up at the brown haired man.

"Tentomon has told me that the others are planning to get Takeru back while keeping possession of the Fangs of Nidhogg," Gennai said nodding to the large ladybug that was sitting next to Koushiro. "As you know I have not been overly vocal since this problem with the Dark Digicore started."

"Yes, I was wondering about that," Koushiro said looking up at Gennai.

"I figured you would," Gennai said as he turned and pressed a button on the wall behind him. The wood paneling swept open revealing a large screen. "So let me explain. When the Dark Digicore was stolen I was tasked by Azulongmon to track its movements, and to report to him clandestinely. At first we believed that the thieves that stole the Dark Digicore were just megalomaniacs looking for a cheap army. Not knowing that the Dark Digicore's true power was linked to the other six artifacts."

"But from our observations the other six artifacts aren't that powerful…" Koushiro responded looking up at Gennai.

"On their own yes, simple power," Gennai pressed a second button on the wall behind him. "But together…"

An image flickered onto the screen behind Gennai. The image was of a dragon. A pair of claws glowed on the screen on the dragon's hands, followed by a pair of eyes on its head. A pair of fangs appeared in place in its mouth. A red pulsing light appeared on the dragon's chest. The body of the dragon was covered in glowing orange scales and a pair of leathery wings glowed into life on the dragon's back. Finally a large, lavender ball shifted into position between the eyes.

"So you can decorate a statue?" Mimi asked tilting her head, "A gaudy statue?"

"It's much graver than an ugly piece of lawn decoration," Gennai replied as he picked up a remote and pressed yet another button. The screen changed again seven symbols covered the screen they formed a circle. The uppermost symbol glowed brightly. "The Digital World's history can be separated into three distinct eras, the Demonian, the Draconian and the Humanian. These seven symbols represent the earliest rulers of the Digital World, the Seven Great Demon Lords who ruled during the Demonian age. The era was swathed in darkness but in a way it was the most stable and there was comparable peace. The era is also denoted as the one with the greatest amount of repression…"

"You mean the demons ruled the world with an iron fist that kept everyone in their place," Jyou looked up as he put his hand on Gomamon's head and ruffled the seal's red Mohawk.

"Exactly," Gennai nodded. "But that era would come to an end with a great explosion. From the shadows rose Four Great Dragons, they manipulated the Great Demon Lords into great internal strife. Civil War broke out as three factions engaged one another. One Faction that included the lead demon, Lucemon and his cohort Belphemon, were destroyed as far as anyone can tell. The second faction allied themselves with the Great Dragons and captured the third faction of demon lords in a pocket universe. After that the Great Dragons turned on the remaining demons.

"You've met four of the Great Demon Lords," Gennai clicked his remote and four figures appeared.

The first was a tall, thin man with tattered wings and long horns that extended from the sides of his head. The second was a voluptuous woman dressed in black. The third was a small imp standing smugly with a red ascot tied around his neck. The last was a cloaked figure with curved horns that protruded his cowl.

"Devimon, LadyDevimon, the last one is Daemon," Koushiro looked at the third digimon. "Is that one Impmon?"

"Yes," Gennai nodded as looked up at the screen.

"Not really a threat, we toasted Devimon and LadyDevimon and well Impmon…" Taichi gave the other children an incredulous look. "I mean the only one that was a real threat is Daemon and he's quite comfortably locked away."

"So why are we prancing around worried about these guys again?" Yamato sighed in agitation and glared up at Gennai. "Two are dead, one is locked away and the last one is a pipsqueak that wouldn't scare a cowardly Chuumon…"

"It is what the pipsqueak is doing that is frightening," Gennai stated quietly as he pressed a button on his remote. The screen returned to the picture of the dragon from before. "Impmon has been gathering the artifacts shown. Individually they are powerless and useless to him, but together…well…"

"Spit it out, the longer we're here the longer they have to turn my brother into sushi!" Yamato leapt to his feet and jumped forward grabbing Gennai by the front of his beige robes.

Gennai didn't flinch he just looked calmly into Yamato's icy eyes. "The Draconian era was very tempestuous. The four dragons that defeated the Demon Lords were Megidramon, Holydramon, Goddramon and Azulongmon," Gennai extricated himself from Yamato's grasp as the boy, with the other children gasped. Gennai tugged at his robes and smoothed them out. "Azulongmon believed dragon digimon should be guardians that protect others…the other three believed the dragon digimon should be rulers. Azulongmon attempted to raise an army of digimon known as the Devas against the three imperial dragons. Azulongmon lost…but in his defeat he sent a message to my people and set them to work to find a way to defeat Megidramon, Goddramon and Holydramon.

"That was how the digi-destined were born…the original digi-destined came here to defeat the imperial dragons. At the end of the battle, Azulongmon and the digi-destined were only capable of sealing the imperial dragons and locking their power into six artifacts. Azulongmon tainted one of his digi-cores with the evil dragons' powers and used it as the key to all keys."

"In other words those artifacts are keys with the Dark Digicore being the master key…" Koushiro looked up at the image of the dragon on the screen behind Gennai. "Then that means Impmon and his co-conspirators are planning to resurrect the Great Dragons."

"Why? If Impmon was one of these Demon Lords…" Sora looked up at Gennai, "Why would he want to free those who brought about his downfall?"

"We don't know…" Gennai sighed, crossing his arms. "But it brings us to the reason I called you here…" Gennai slipped a hand into his wide wristed sleeves. He produced an orb. It shimmered with an intense green light. "Ebonwumon is the most knowledgeable of the Harmonious Ones. He was the oldest Deva who had joined Azulongmon….his age is even greater than that of Azulongmon. He has the power to predict, limitedly, the future. He came to me about three days ago, much was on his minds. He was frightened, terrified."

"What could scare something like Ebonwumon?" Jyou rubbed his arm slightly, "He's like a god…I mean he's the great Harmonious One of the North…him scaring is like…well…it's like…I don't know there's not much that can compare…"

"What scared him, Gennai?" Sora flicked an eye to Jyou and then to Yamato and then back to Gennai.

"Ebonwumon had a dream. In this dream he saw storm clouds looming on the horizon…and saw Azulongmon's lightning flashing across the thunderheads, Zhuqiaomon's flames raining down upon the ground, Baihumon's roar thundering throughout the heavens and his own hail crashing upon cities below. Suddenly, the storm was torn apart by a great wind and three monsters rose from the wreckage of the Digital World…the sun went dark…and…" Gennai looked deeply into the globe in his hand, "He saw…the Human World bathed in blood…"

Taichi looked over to his friends. Mimi was shivering and clutching onto Palmon. Yamato had sunken to his knees and Gabumon was nuzzled under one of his arms. Jyou was looking worriedly down at Gomamon. Koushiro was looking forward with furrowed brows. Tentomon was looking up at Koushiro.

Agumon was at Taichi's side. The little tyrannosaur placed a claws hand on Taichi's shoulder. The reptile's green eyes quivered slightly in the subdued light.

Taichi looked up at Gennai. "So…what are we supposed to do?"

"Ebonwumon said that in his dream after the storm was destroyed and the sun was darkened….the sky filled with thousands of stars, but clouds began to obscure those pinpricks of light," Gennai looked up from the orb in his hand. "He said that the stars could only mean one thing that the only hope for the Human and Digital Worlds is the digi-destined children. He then gave me one of his digi-cores in hopes that even if his brute force could not defeat the forces to come that his strength may participate marginally to the defeat of the evil."

"Restoring the Ultimate forms of our partners will not do much against creatures that could destroy the Harmonious Ones," Koushiro pointed out quickly.

"I know…"Gennai said quietly. "But Ebonwumon seems to think it can." Gennai looked down at the digicore in his hands. The emerald light glinted forward so peaceably. Gennai then looked up at the digi-destined, "Ebonwumon put his heart and soul into this digicore…it may be even more powerful than the ones Azulongmon used. So prepare for what could be the biggest power surge your digimon could possibly handle. Hold up your digivices and prepare."

The digi-destined looked down at their digimon and then lifted the white, square digivices that were hooked to their pants or in their pockets. They pointed the devices at the digicore.

"Let's hope that they don't all spontaneously digivolve or we'll be crushed underneath five or six meters of water," Koushiro said with a slight, self conscious chuckle.

"Here it goes…" Gennai closed his eyes as green light exploded in all directions bouncing all over the room until it struck either a digimon or a digivice.

"It's hot! Hot!" yelped Agumon and Gabumon loudly as they danced around. The other digimon were quick to follow as the energy zapped over their bodies like lightning.

"The digivices…" Jyou shouted as his widened eyes stared at the shining ball of light at the end of his arm. "They are cracking!"

"They can't handle the power!" Koushiro shouted as he shook his hand trying release the device in his hand. "They'll go critical….who knows what would happen if the digivices exploded….they have so much power in them an uncontrolled reaction could…"

"Cause them to change shape…?" Sora said as she held up her digivice. It was larger than it used to be. It had a white face but a soft mauve siding. "Is this…what I think it is?"

"They turned into D-3s…" Mimi said as she looked at hers. It had a soft green casing.

"The power must have been enough to cause a transmogrification of matter," Koushiro blinked as he looked at his new D-3. It was a sunny yellow color.

Taichi looked at his fire orange D-3 and then over at Yamato's ocean blue digivice. Jyou held up his lavender digivice and raised an eyebrow.

"I feel really strong," Gabumon whispered quietly as he patted himself. "I haven't felt like this since, well since we fought the Dark Masters…."

"Could that mean?" Yamato looked up at Gennai.

"No idea, could very well be…" The man said with a nod.

The digi-destined jumped slightly as Koushiro's D-terminal bleated. The cinnamon haired boy snatched the small flip-top digital machine up and opened it.

"Well, Gennai couldn't have given us our strength back a minute too soon," Koushiro looked up. "The others are having a problem with an incredibly powerful digimon that the DemiMamon created, they said they need WarGreymon…"

"I say we give them more than just that…" Yamato clenched his fist. "You mess with my brother or my friends and you get no second chances…"

Gennai sighed and flipped his remote up and pointed it to the ceiling of the building. The ceiling split and opened slowly. The children winced but weren't drenched in water. They looked upward a tunnel of air shot upward through the lake above.

"Let 'er rip!" Gennai smiled as he stuck his remote back into his robes.

Agumon and Gabumon clenched their clawed fists as Taichi and Yamato lifted their new D-3s. Seconds later, orange and blue comets of light erupted into the sky. The other digi-destined gasped as the two lights jetted out of view.

888

Daisuke and the others walked down the path. The DemiMamon had sent coordinates and a few rules about their drop off. Daisuke frowned angrily and looked over at Iori.

"Are you sure this was the right thing to do?" Daisuke glowered angrily.

"This will work," Iori said. The sandy haired boy said as he shifted the tote that hung over his shoulder.

"Do you want me to carry it for a while, Iori?" Ken offered his hand to the younger boy.

"No, I'm fine," Iori said as he continued to trudge forward, "The swords aren't that heavy."

"This is the first time I've ever been to the Digital World without Gatomon with me," Hikari looked over at Miyako. The pink haired girl was looking in the treetops.

"I remember when Iori and I first came," Miyako stated as she looked into the sky. "We were attacked…by Snimon and Drimogemon…and a third digimon…Mojyamon…"

"We should be there soon," Hikari said quietly as she walked ahead of Daisuke.

She'd been silent since the children had returned to the Digital World. Daisuke had suggested that the older kids go to see what Gennai had wanted and that they would go ahead to free Takeru. Hikari had nearly led the way walking several paces in front of Daisuke for most of the trip. The message they had gotten was clear. It told them to go to a set of coordinates and that any interference by the digi-destineds' digimon would result in Takeru being harmed. Iori had concocted an elaborate plan of attack that would allow Takeru to get free safely and then allow them to reclaim the Swords of Nidhogg if not all the stolen artifacts. So now they were walking down a path without their digimon into the lair of their enemy to free their friend.

"Around this bend, I think," Ken said as he looked at his D-terminal. "Sector 0-3386 Alpha."

"Anything special here?" Iori asked as he looked up.

"Just a mountain…well…" Ken pursed his lips as he picked his words. "It's a mountain but not a mountain…it's more of a mound. Kind of like the ancient burial mounds of the Native Americans…"

"I see it!" Miyako pointed up. A large, round green hill several thousands of kilometers high rose up from the forest.

Daisuke whistled loudly as he looked up at the huge mountain of soil. "That has to be one big Indian…"

"I did some survey work around this area…" Ken said quietly. He looked down, "Before you guys came to the Digital World. This place gave off an odd energy reading…I was never able to figure it out though. The digimon in this area said that this place was supposed to be the resting place of gods…"

"Like the Harmonious Ones…?" Iori looked up quietly, "Maybe this is the place that the Dark Masters defeated Azulongmon and the others."

"I don't know…" Ken whispered as he looked up at the mountain.

The tree line parted and they walked out of the greenery of the forest and a dusty lifeless clearing. The base of the mound was in front of them. The children's faces grew stern as they got closer and could make out two small forms standing at the base of the mound.

"Well, there's Impmon and one of the DemiMamon," Iori grunted as he walked.

It seemed like it took forever for them to get to place where Impmon and the winged DemiMamon were waiting. Behind the two, Rookie digimon was a large archway with a sealed door.

"Where's Takeru?" Miyako shouted loudly.

"Inside, with Pul," Impmon was the one that answered. The little, lavender, furred, bipedal digimon walked forward smugly. He snapped his red gloved fingers and a maroon flame appeared at his fingertips. "Didya come alone. Like wes told you to?"

"Yeah, we came alone," Daisuke retorted glaring at the white faced imp.

"Oh…really, ya mean they aren't hidin' out in the distance waiting to jump us?" Impmon wiggled his fingers and the maroon flame disappeared. He adjusted the red ascot around his neck and coughed. He pointed to his forehead and his green eyes strained as he tensed all his muscles. "Then…if they aren't here….I'll…be able to do this to yas…" A wind swirled up in front of Impmon. A small portal opened and a basketball sized fireball rose into the air in front of Impmon. "Infernal Funnel!"

Impmon thrust his hands forward and the ball of fire smashed into Daisuke throwing the flame jacketed goggle-head to the ground roughly. The boy's jacket smoldered but there were no large flames. Daisuke grunted as he patted the smoking parts of his coat and got up.

"See…no one's here," Miyako snapped as she helped Daisuke to his feet. "We came alone!"

"Mmm…Pal, go get the boy," Impmon snorted as he flicked his hazel eyes back to the small, winged demon behind him.

"Are you ok, Daisuke?" Ken was looking over the brown haired child cautiously.

"I'm fine," Daisuke said with a tug at the lapels of his coat, "Its bark is bigger than its bite."

"Yous want another?" Impmon threatened with a clenched fist.

"Ooo, real threatening," Daisuke sighed looking at the smiley face on the digimon's stomach, "I'm just terrified of digimon with yellow faces painted on their stomach, that are like a third my size…"

"Daisuke, be quiet," Hikari said with a very even, authoritative voice. Daisuke blinked and clamped his mouth shut.

"And I'm scared of wittle boys who get clammed up by their wee wittle girlfwiends!" Impmon laughed loudly holding his stomach as his chortled.

"Oh man, you just wait," Daisuke growled under his breath.

888

"See, you thought everything was black and white…" Pul turned around and looked at Takeru, "and forgot the shades of gray."

"What you're doing is still wrong and will get way too many innocent people injured," Takeru glared up at the winged imp as it fluttered about in front of a huge carved image of a dragon. "If you let those dragons free, they'll crush everything around them…"

"That is not my problem," Pul said quietly as he hummed admiring his handy work. "The anarchy must end. Too many digimon are making the decisions. No one can agree…the only way to settle it is by having a single voice, a single purpose, a single leader."

"The dragons will crush everyone else's hopes and dreams for the sake of their own desires," Takeru jumped to his feet, for all the impressiveness he could muster with his hands tied behind his back. "You can't let them free to do that…no one has that right!"

"You'd rather the world turn into a maelstrom of everyone trying to attain everything," The DemiMamon turned its head back to Takeru, "Who's hopes are going to be the most important, who will be allowed to achieve them and who will be forced to lose out when the resources to achieve everyone's wishes disappear? I am going to save so many people the anguish of empty hope, impossible wishes and dreams…I'm streamlining the destiny of all so that the future of this world will be better for all. You plan to put them all to work at futile endeavors doomed to failure. And you are calling me the cruel and evil one…tsk."

"Everyone should be allowed the chance to at least try to achieve their dreams…" Takeru stammered angrily as he looked at the little imp.

"Even if their dreams are to destroy the Digital World and kill the Human World?" Pul said with a voice bathed in guile.

"Of course not…" Takeru retorted instantly.

"And what gives you the right to deny those with that kind of dream?" Pul flew straight up to Takeru and touched noses with him, glaring into the blonde's blue eyes. "Who made you arbiter of what is right to dream and wrong to dream?"

"That kind of dream would hurt innocent people…" Takeru snarled angrily glaring back into Pul's purple eyes.

"Innocent, innocent, you keep using that word…" Pul said backing away from Takeru, shaking his head. "Innocence is a fool's game. The universe is painted red by tooth and claw, there is no innocence!"

"What about those defenseless digi-eggs!?" Takeru shouted loudly as he glared at the DemiMamon. "They haven't hurt anyone!?"

"Oh please…" Pul glided back and forth. "They were once digimon, and those digimon hurt others to get where they were and then they were executed….because they could no longer stay ahead of the game. The eggs are just as easily guilty as any other being."

The shadows of the cavern they were in shifted slightly and concealed Pul in darkness.

"You are an evil being," Takeru said bluntly. "I don't understand how a creature like you could've turned bad so fast…"

"And you are so pure that you're stupid," Pul replied as he reappeared by the carving of the dragon. "You lie to yourself…tell yourself that you're not denying some to their dreams…" The DemiMamon's lavender eyes flashed in the weak light, "For the spider to live, the moth must die…for if the moth lives the spider will waste away and die." DemiMamon smirked quietly, "You goody-goods always forget that the Light is defined by Darkness. The shadow feeds on the light, and the darkness gives way to the shining sun. You can't be good all the time…you'll cease to exist…"

"Pul! Pul! They're here!" The DemiMamon was joined by his twin who appeared through a large arching tunnel that led outside. "They have the swords, they even came alone!"

"Oh, and just when it was getting good," Pul said with a disappointed tone. "I guess our time together is over…it was nice talking to you, digi-destined. The next time we'll meet, this world will be under new lords and masters and then…then things will become stable once more. Oh you'll love it…peace and quiet…"

"You won't get away with this!" Takeru shouted. "We'll stop you! We'll make sure your plans never get completed!"

"Pal, do take our dear lad outside to see his friends," Pul said as he landed on the ground and looked up at the carving of the dragon. Most of the carving was covered in the artifacts, in fact the only thing left were the engravings of the fangs and a divot in the dragon's forehead. "I wouldn't wish to be seen as a poor host."

"Of course brother," The other DemiMamon said as he flew across the cave chamber and behind Takeru. The blonde boy felt a sharp prod against his back and he started forward walking toward the entrance. Pal stopped and looked back at his brother, "Do you want the Dark Digicore back yet?"

"No, keep it, I wouldn't wish for you to get caught in some sort of trap…" Pul said calmly as he admired the carving. "We are so close I can taste the brimstone in the air…"

Takeru opened his mouth but he was cut off by a sharp, painful prod to the back that sent him staggering forward toward the exit of the inner sanctum and into the tunnel that led outside.

"He-he, we're going to win," Pal giggled loudly in Takeru's ear.

888

"This is nearly over," Impmon was sitting on a rock putting his hand on one of his knees. The imp's hazel eyes looked over at the children. "Oh you'd have loved it back then…"

"We're not going to let you win," Daisuke shouted lifting a clenched fist.

"Bah," Impmon snorted as he hopped off the rock and landed with an 'oomf'. "What you've faced till now has been pudding and cake compared to the power we're going to free."

"We'll find a way to stop you," Iori stated with a stony glare.

"TK…" Hikari looked up. The gates on the arch swung open and a blonde haired boy staggered forward. His face was dirty and his clothes had burns and rips. Hikari took a step forward.

"Nuh uh," Impmon hopped in front of the girl and glared up at her. "Swords first, then the boy…"

Iori walked forward and threw the tote containing the swords on the ground. The little boy glared at Impmon as the digimon walked forward and unzipped the tote. A smile swept across his white face.

"They really brought the swords!?" The DemiMamon that had escorted Takeru pushed forward and looked at the jewel encrusted blades. "Oh Impmon…it's all going to happen for real!"

Impmon and the DemiMamon giggled loudly as they looked at the swords. As they did Takeru ran towards his friends. The digimon didn't seem too worried about it. Impmon re-zipped the tote and lifted it with a grunt. He and the DemiMamon started toward the mound's gate.

"Enjoy your freedom…" Impmon smirked as he looked up at the gates, "for as long as you can…"

Hikari ran forward and hugged Takeru tightly. Miyako was behind her and undid the boy's binding. Iori looked up at Daisuke. Daisuke nodded to Iori.

"Digmon…" Iori whispered into his D-3. "Now…"

The earth shook underneath the children's feet. Impmon and the DemiMamon spun around and looked at the ground. The soil cracked and then the ground erupted. Digmon, Flamedramon, Shurimon, Puttimon, Gatomon and Patamon leapt out of the hole in the ground.

"This is for Daisuke!" Flamedramon shouted as he clenched his flame gauntleted fist. "Fire Knuckle!"

Impmon dove for the ground as three large fireballs flew over his head, singeing his ears. DemiMamon faltered backward as Puttimon whipped his arrowhead antenna forward stabbing them into the ground where the little winged demon had been. Gatomon jumped on top of DemiMamon. The winged demon tossed the Dark Digicore away as he struggled with a scroll. Gatomon was thrown back as an ice spear shot from the scroll. DemiMamon leapt backward as one of Shurimon's shurikens buzzed through the ground in front of him.

The Dark Digicore rolled through the air. Patamon flew for the black orb but was blindsided by an arsenal of lavender flames. Digmon reached for the digicore only to have it bounce off his drill heads and skull. Impmon ran past Digmon as Flamedramon charged forward after the digicore. The black orb bounced and rolled across the ground. Impmon and Flamedramon leapt forward. The two digimon landed on the orb and skid across the ground.

"Let go!" shouted Flamedramon as he got up. Impmon was clinging to the black sphere.

"Never!" Impmon shouted as he glared up at the dragon angrily. "Pal! Help me!"

"Working on it!" yelped the winged demon as he picked up a scroll.

"Double Star!" Shurimon flung one of his arms forward.

"Yipe!" DemiMamon dropped on his butt as the shuriken swirled over his head. Pal gulped and flung the scroll forward. "Petite Curse! Water Scroll! Tsunami Force!"

A pulse of water smashed into the back of Flamedramon. The lithe, fiery armored dragon lurched forward releasing the Dark Digicore. Impmon fell to the ground with the orb in his lap. Impmon looked up at everyone.

"I got it!" Impmon laughed loudly as he held up the Dark Digicore. "I got it! Finally I got it! After all this time! I finally got it!"

"Impmon! Help me!" shouted the DemiMamon. The chubby winged demon was surrounded by Puttimon, Shurimon, Digmon and Gatomon. "Do something!"

"As you wish…" Impmon smiled evilly as he looked into the depths of the Dark Digicore. The imp's hazel eyes sparkled and he smiled even wider. "Dark Digicore Activate!"

"Uh oh…" The DemiMamon gulped as he watched as a flash of darkness engulfed Impmon. "Pul's not going to like this…"

The darkness rose into a seven and a half foot tall column of smoke. A pair of red eyes glowed through the darkness. The destined digimon turned around. Flamedramon flew backward as sparks exploded off his flame painted chest armor. Digmon smashed against the gates of the archway into the mound.

The smoke was swept away. A man stood their clad in leather from head to toe. A leather mask covered the top of his bluish-gray skinned face. Two eyes glared out of the head mask and a third on the digimon's forehead seemed to gaze into nothingness. It wore a leather jacket with a yellow furred collar that matched its dishwater blonde hair. A pair of leather jeans stretched down long legs to a pair of leather boots tipped with metallic spurs. The digimon's metallically enhanced, clawed hands gripped a pair of double barreled handguns. A long, black, crocodilian tail swept back and forth behind the digimon.

"Oh yeah, this is just like it should be!" laughed the digimon loudly as he pointed the guns at Shurimon and Puttimon.

"Heartner Beam!" pink bolts of light fired from Puttimon's rubbery gloved finger to the chest of the leather clad digimon. The digimon didn't flinch.

"Wha? Is that all ya got? Hardly worth the effort. Yous see I'm a Mega digimon, nah, more than that! I'm one of the Great Demon Lords, Beelzemon!" The digimon closed one of his eyes and lined his gun barrel up with the other. "Say good night, Gracie! Double Impact!"

Puttimon was plastered spread eagle against the archway gate. Shurimon narrowed his golden eyes and charged forward. He flung his spring loaded arms forward spinning the shuriken at the end of the vine-like appendage. Beelzemon tilted his head and the shuriken flew past his head. One of Beelzemon's clawed hands whipped up and caught the vine. The demon lord yanked, jerking Shurimon towards him. Shurimon whipped his other arm forward.

"Double Star!" roared the shinobi as the shuriken flew forward.

"Double Impact, Baby!" Beelzemon pointed the gun at Shurimon's beige robed body. The guns fired and Shurimon was sent flipping head over shuriken foot. The demon lord then released the arm he had hold of and Shurimon smashed against Digmon.

"You think you're so tough," Gatomon clenched her gloved claws. "I'll shred you…"

"Heh, is da wittle pussycat getting fwisky?" Beelzemon laughed as he pointed his gun at the cat. "I'll skin you left, right and center…"

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Hikari shouted. Beelzemon turned around and narrowed his eyes. Hikari lifted her D-3.

"Gatomon Armor Synthesis Digivolve to…" The feline glowed with a pink light and started to transform. White wings spread out as a woman walked forward. A steel helmet fell over her head covering her eyes. "…Angewomon, Messenger of Light!" The woman pushed her arm forward and a pair of wings flicked up from her wrist and formed a bow. "Celestial Arrow!"

A streak of light exploded into Beelzemon. The demon staggered backward as a second and third arrow erupted into the demon's chest.

"TK, here I think you need this!" Hikari turned around and tossed a D-3 to the blonde haired boy.

TK caught the digivice. "Patamon! Let's show them!"

"Patamon digivolve to…" The ear-winged hamster glowed and morphed into a white body-suited angel with a blue sash that twirled around his body. A metallic helmet fell over the golden haired angel's eyes. "Angemon!" Angemon glowed as a ball of light flew into him. "Angemon Armor Synthesis digivolve to…." Angemon got wider as his muscles expanded. Golden sashes crossed his chest as a lavender helm formed over his head and lavender armor covered his shoulder. "MagnaAngemon, Harbinger of Hope!"

MagnaAngemon drove forward and the lavender energy blade, Excalibur, burned from the golden bracelet around the angel's right wrist. Beelzemon fell backward as MagnaAngemon sliced upward. Beelzemon did a backward somersault and jumped to his feet, spinning his gun on his finger before jamming it into its holster.

"So you want to fight that way, mm?" Beelzemon cracked his knuckles and glared at the two angels who stood before him.

"We won't let you win!" The angels replied.

"Pal, go to Pul, take the swords…I'll hold on to the Dark Digicore and bring it to you when I'm finished taking out the trash," Beelzemon growled as he looked down at the small winged imp. The little imp nodded sharply and ran to the tote, grabbing it and dragging towards the archway. The gates opened and he slipped through closing the gates behind him. Beelzemon looked back up at the angels, "You should run while the running's good."

"Celestial Arrow!" Angewomon replied firing a bolt of light at Beelzemon. The demon snorted and smacked the arrow away.

"Gate of Destiny!" MagnaAngemon carved a circle in the air with his sword.

A golden gate appeared and opened slowly. The wind swirled into the innards of the gate. The Digi-destined dug their feet in as the wind twisted around them.

"Try this!" Beelzemon leapt toward the gate. The children gasped at the demon's seeming suicidal act. Beelzemon stretched his fingers and his metal claws glinted in the light, "Darkness Claw!"

Streaks of black energy crisscrossed across the gates surface. The portal shuddered as the energy continued to crackle across the golden surface of the gate. The portal then exploded. MagnaAngemon and Angewomon gasped as Beelzemon charged forward.

"Call, Tai," Hikari shouted, "We can't hold him…"

Ken pulled his D-terminal out of his pocket and typed out a message. He hit send and looked up.

Beelzemon swiped at MagnaAngemon with his claws, knocking the male angel out of the way. Beelzemon spun around and slapped Angewomon with his hard, scaly tail. Beelzemon leapt into the air and reached down grabbing the hilts of his two guns and pulled them out.

"Fire Rocket!" A flaming Flamedramon leapt upward and smashed into Beelzemon's chest with all his weight. The demon grunted as he was knocked backward. Flamedramon crashed to the ground and fell to his knees.

"So you're conscious again…" Beelzemon landed on his feet and pointed his guns at Flamedramon. "Don't worry, this time you won't wake up ever again…"

"Gold Rush!" Drills buzzed past Beelzemon's head.

The demon snorted and leapt backward as a pink bolt of light sliced past his nose. Two shurikens flashed in front of the demon as he twisted backward.

"You're annoying little bugs!" snarled Beelzemon as he shot back at the Armored digimon.

"Celestial Arrow!" One of Angewomon's arrows of light imbedded itself in Beelzemon's shoulder.

"Star Shower!" Golden meteors of light exploded from MagnaAngemon's wings, and fell around the demon as he yanked the arrow out of his shoulder. The arrow exploded with heavenly energy and sent Beelzemon reeling backward.

"Darkness Claw!" Arcs of black energy cut through the smoke catching MagnaAngemon and Angewomon. The two angels crashed to the ground. Beelzemon walked through the smoke and lifted his double barreled gun lining it up to shoot the two angels. "You should've never interfered…"

"Someone! Stop him!" Miyako shrieked loudly. "Please!"

The others were frozen in action. For them it was like time was standing still. They saw the clawed finger slowly press on the trigger. The angels were huddled on the ground injured. The Armored digimon were too hurt to move, Flamedramon was lying on his back, Digmon was laid out on his side, Puttimon was lying on his stomach on top of Digmon and Shurimon was lying against the mound.

"Double Impact!" A puff of smoke exploded from the barrels of the gun.

The energy bullets twisted through the air flying towards the angels. Miyako was screaming and everyone else were frozen watching the bullets closing in on the angelic digimon.

"Metal Wolf Snout!" A series of blue lasers sliced through bullets and left a pair of icy stalagmites on the ground.

Hikari and Takeru spun around, looking up and smiled. Beelzemon swept around and was caught in a blast of ice. The other digi-destined turned around as a metal wolf flew past; shoulder aero-foils glowed with energy as the wolf past. The wolf had golden chest armor and gray hind armor. A blade like tail was held out behind the metal wolf.

"Metal Garurumon!" Takeru cheered loudly as the wolf smashed his front paws into Beelzemon's chest.

The demon curled and drove his feet into the wolf's stomach and kicked it off of him. The jets on the wolf's armor fired and the canine rose into the air, glaring down at Beelzemon.

"Double Impact!" Beelzemon whipped one of his guns up and fired on the metallic wolf.

Metal Garurumon fired blue lasers at the bullets as they came in.

"Grand Tornado!" A second voice roared forward as a spinning orange tornado spun forward.

Beelzemon growled as the tornado crashed into his side. The tornado dissipated revealing a dragon warrior. Yellow armor covered the dragon man's orange skin. A gray breast plate covered the digimon's chest and the digimon's metallic head had a pair of horns that rose from the sides of its head.

"It's WarGreymon!" Hikari clapped his hands and laughed.

"So…now it gets interesting…" Beelzemon lifted his two guns and pointed it at the Mega digimon looking down at him. "Two on one…I like the odds…"

"Everyone out of the way!" Takeru shouted loudly at the Armored digimon. The Armored digimon scrambled, hobbling, towards their partners. The angel digimon opened their wings and rose into the air next to the Mega digimon.

"You're outnumbered," Angewomon said loudly. "We will destroy you if you don't stand down."

"I'd like to see you try," Beelzemon sneered as he pressed on the triggers of his guns. "Double Impact!"

WarGreymon closed his gauntleted hands together and raised his arms, spreading them out and forming a massive ball of energy. "Terra Force!"

"Metal Wolf Claw!" Metal Garurumon took in a deep breath of air and belch forth a huge wave of ice. The two attacks twisted around each other burning through the four bullets whizzing towards them.

"Heaven's Charm!" Angewomon put her hands together and spread them out releasing a cross of holy energy.

MagnaAngemon clenched his fists and a lavender ball of energy formed around the balled up hand. "Soul Banishment!" The male angel punched forward firing a purple bolt of energy toward Beelzemon.

The demon snarled as the four attacks smashed into his chest driving him backward into the gates of the archway. The gate cringed under the pressure and imploded. Beelzemon rose to his feet and dusted himself off.

"Not bad, for beginners," Beelzemon spun his guns on his fingers and grabbed them, pointing them forward. Bullets flew forward as Beelzemon retreated into the cavern.

"We can't let him get away!" WarGreymon shouted as he dropped to the ground and swept his Brave Shields in front of him. The bullets dented the shields as WarGreymon pushed forward with Metal Garurumon and the angels right behind him.

"We…should help…" Flamedramon winced and fell to a knee. He glowed and reverted to Veemon. "Aww jeez…"

Shurimon, Digmon and Puttimon shared the same fate as Flamedramon as they collapsed into their Rookie form.

"We can still stop the DemiMamon," Hawkmon said as he ran forward. "At least slow them down!"

"Yeah!" Armadillomon loped after the brick red hawk.

"Wait for me!" Wormmon scrambled after the golden armadillo.

"Hey guys! Wait!" Veemon hopped after them.

"You'll get hurt!" shouted Miyako as she ran after the digimon.

"It was always a chance, but we can't stop protecting the world just because of that!" retorted Hawkmon loudly as he ran towards the cave.

"But!" Miyako started but she stopped and turned around.

There was a loud thrumming noise. A humongous red, beetle jetted over her head, followed by a large bird like digimon. It had the wings of an eagle and the body of a man. Native American mask covered its beaked head. Its hands and feet had talons and its legs had feathered leggings. A small, fairy buzzed after the bird man. She had leafy wings that whirred and a flowered hat and skirt. The forest split as a creature that was a cross between a walrus and a turtle moved forward. It had a furry face with tusks and a horn. Its spiked shell was green and covered the entirety of its back. Its legs shuffled forward and its clawed hand lifted a huge sledgehammer.

"MegaKabuterimon, Garudamon, Lillymon, Zudomon!" Takeru and Hikari gasped as the digimon passed.

MegaKabuterimon landed on the earth in front of the mound. Taichi, Mimi and Koushiro leapt down from the large beetle.

"Where's WarGreymon?" Taichi called out loudly.

Garudamon touched down next to MegaKabuterimon. The eagle put Sora and Yamato down.

"They went into the cave after Beelzemon!" Hikari shouted as the younger digi-destined ran forward. "In fact that's where our digimon went, to try and slow down the DemiMamon twins."

"This isn't good; Beelzemon is strong enough to hold off WarGreymon and Metal Garurumon…" Iori whispered as he looked into the hole in the side of the mound.

"Who's Beelzemon?" Mimi asked as she looked at the others.

Zudomon and Lillymon walked over to the other digimon. Jyou was put down gently.

"Impmon evolved into him, some sort of really strong Mega digimon…" Ken stated quietly as he looked after a relatively loud explosion filtered out of the cave.

"You mean, Impmon who used to be one of the Great Demon Lords?" Jyou gulped as he looked at the other digi-destined. "Oh man, this is trouble, big trouble…"

"It's only one Great Demon Lord, and we have two Megas against him," Taichi said with a smile.

"And Angewomon and MagnaAngemon," Daisuke said smiling. "We'll cook him!"

"Don't be so sure…" Sora said sternly.

The ground shook again and the children staggered.

"We should go in there," Taichi said as he walked forward with Daisuke bounding after him. The others looked at each other and then up at the digimon.

"We'll stay here, and watch in case Beelzemon or the DemiMamon try to escape," Zudomon said smacking his hammer in his hand.

"I'll come with you," Lillymon said walking next to Mimi. "Just in case…"

The children nodded and turned to run after Taichi and Daisuke. Lillymon buzzed after Mimi as the ground rumbled again.

888

Pul placed the Fangs of Nidhogg into their place on the circular dragon carving. He held his hand out towards his twin. "Give me the digicore, Pal."

"Uh…about that…" Pal said as he wrung his hands and danced about with his feet.

"Just give me the Digicore!" snarled Pul loudly.

"Well, I…can't…" Pal gulped loudly as he looked down.

"What do you mean you can't!?" Pul spun around and glared at Pal, whose wings were bent in submission. "Pal, you best explain yourself!"

"I…ah…I kind of lost it…well it's not lost…it's just," Pal looked at the ground twisting his hands.

"Double Impact!" Pul looked up as Beelzemon backed into the cavern's chamber.

"You idiot!" shouted Pul as he grabbed his twin by the front of his rubber suit. "You gave it to him!?"

"I didn't give it to him…the digi-destined they attacked and…he got it!" Pal gulped as he looked into his brother's eyes.

"Metal Wolf Snout!" blue beams of energy fired past Beelzemon's head.

"Celestial Arrow!" Beelzemon jarred backward as an arrow exploded into the demon's chest.

Four digimon entered into the room. A WarGreymon, Metal Garurumon, an Angewomon and a MagnaAngemon flew forward. The two Mega digimon charged forward. WarGreymon drilled his clawed gauntlets into Beelzemon's stomach and Metal Garurumon smashed his clawed paws into the demon's shoulders, driving the digimon to the ground.

Beelzemon swept his claws and temporarily dispatched of the two Mega digimon forcing them to retreat. The two angels flew forward firing bolts of holy energy at Beelzemon, driving the demon backward. He crashed against the statue of Megidramon and groaned.

"Gah, be careful!" shouted Pul loudly. "If you hurt those statues I'll hurt you!"

"I need more power then…" grunted Beelzemon as he reached into leather jacket. He pulled out the Dark Digicore. "More power…more power…Dark Digicore activate!"

Dark energy swarmed around behind the demon. A pair of black, feathery wings erupted from his back. Beelzemon watched as his right arm was surrounded by a black cloud that turned into a huge arm mounted plasma cannon. Beelzemon lifted the cannon and pointed it at the angels.

"What have you done?" The angels looked down at the changed demon.

"I've achieved a form I never thought I could…" Beelzemon replied cocking his head a little, "Let's just see how powerful this is…Corona Destroyer!"

The muzzle of the cannon split showing a pair of serrated inner edges. A pink energy exploded from the muzzle and fired in a single gaseous stream at MagnaAngemon and Angewomon. The two angels were smashed against the ceiling of the chamber. The angels twirled downward and crashed into the ground. They glowed and reverted to their Rookie forms.

"Salamon, Patamon…" Metal Garurumon looked down at the two fallen digimon.

"You have your own problems! Corona Destroyer!" Beelzemon targeted his new weapon on the two Mega digimon and fired.

The metal wolf and the dragon warrior scrambled out of the way of the beam of highly condensed plasma. The bolt exploded into the ceiling and ripped a hole through the ceiling. A single strand of sunlight poured through the hole in the ceiling. Beelzemon flapped his wings and took off, taking his double barreled handgun out of its holster. He held out the hand with the plasma cannon and fired a beam at Metal Garurumon. The wolf yelped as the beam smashed him into the wall. The wall cracked under the pressure and the wolf was pushed through the rock. WarGreymon roared forward and lifted his gauntleted arm curling his hand into a fist. Beelzemon grumbled and fired his handgun. WarGreymon jolted backward as bullets plinked off his armor. Beelzemon swung his plasma cannon around and pointed it at WarGreymon.

"Corona Destroyer!" The pink blaze fired from Beelzemon's cannon. WarGreymon was punched through the wall of the cavern. Now three pillars of light flooded the chamber from three holes that led to the outside. Beelzemon smirked at his work. He reached into his jacket and produced the Dark Digicore. He looked down at the DemiMamon below him. "Here, resurrect the dragons; I'll finish these guys off…"

Beelzemon dropped the digicore and watched as the DemiMamon rushed to catch it. He looked up and then flew through the hole in the cavern's roof. Pul grumbled angrily and rushed toward the large circle that held the carving of the dragon.

"No…" DemiMamon turned around. The Patamon was up. It puffed its body up. "Boom Bubble!"

The air puff shot forward and struck Pul in the face knocking him to the ground.

"Patamon! Salamon!" other voices came from the tunnel to the outside. Pul grimaced as he looked up. The other Rookie digimon were here. The blue dragon, Veemon, the red hawk, Hawkmon, Armadillomon with his hard shell and the green bug, Wormmon rushed to their friends, Patamon and Salamon.

"We gotta stop them!" Salamon said as she turned to the DemiMamon.

"Let's go!" Veemon shouted, as he pointed forward. "Charge!"

"Pal, keep them back, I'll hurry and put the digicore in place!" Pul shouted as he took flight.

"ME!?" yelped Pal as he swung around and saw the group of digimon charging towards him. Pal quivered but he shook his head, "Ok, I'll do this, for you brother! Petite Nightmare!"

Bolts of black lightning lanced across the space between Pal and the charging Rookies. Armadillomon leapt forward and rolled into a ball. The lightning bolts bounced off the leathery-backed digimon's armor as he rolled towards Pal.

Pal gulped and jumped into the air and swung around producing a scroll in his hands.

"Boom Bubble!" Patamon fired a burst of air at Pal but the imp threw his scroll at the bubble of air.

The scroll exploded and turned into a large ball of fire that flew at the destined digimon.

"V Headbutt!" the blue dragon leapt upward as the golden V on his wide forehead glowed.

Pal yipped and flew higher. He looked up and blanched as the children appeared at the entrance to the cavern. He paled even further when he saw Lillymon rise out of the group of children.

"PUL!" shouted Pal loudly.

"Flower Cannon!" Lillymon lifted her arm and a large bloom opened on her wrist forming a gun. A green burst of energy flew forward.

"PUL!" screamed Pal as he spun around to his brother. The little winged imp pushed the Dark Digicore into the divot at the forehead of the beast.

"WHAT!?" shouted Pul shouted as he turned around. The winged demon's eyes shrunk as they were filled with green light. "Aww nuts…"

"PUL! PUL!" Pal screamed loudly as he flew forward. The pulse from Lillymon's flower cannon disintegrated Pul like sledgehammer hitting a watermelon. "NO! NO! NO!" Pal stopped and spun around. "You killed him! You killed my brother! You murderer!" The entire cavern shook as the dragon carving glowed. The artifacts burned with energy that flowed in a circle around the carving. The energy streamed into little canals that shot into the floor and from there to the statues behind the carving. Pal turned around and then looked back at the digi-destined, "You murdered him…you killed him…and your judgment day will come…for my brother has completed the work he started. The Great Dragons are born again…and with them, the world will soon become ours…"

The statues cracked as light flooded from the cracks in the statues. The entire mound was now quaking, dirt and soil rained down on the digi-destined.

"We need to get out of here!" shouted Yamato loudly, "This place is going to collapse!"

Pal laughed as the earth fell around him. "This will seal our victory!"

A gold, pink and red energy bolt fired into the roof of the cavern shattering the mound's top leaving the chamber open to the air. The bolts of energy accelerated into the sky. The heavens became filled with black clouds. Pal rose in the air laughing loudly. He left the cavern behind and looked down. The humans and the rookie partners were scrambling out of the cavern and over next to a Zudomon. WarGreymon and Metal Garurumon were clashing with Beelzemon. MegaKabuterimon and Garudamon were joining the battle, as was Lillymon.

"Horn Buster!" a streak of flowing orange lightning from the giant red beetle, MegaKabuterimon, smashed into Beelzemon. The demon turned around and fired his handgun at the huge beetle.

"Wing Blade!" A crimson apparition flew from the eagle-man, Garudamon, and sliced past Beelzemon.

The demon lord snarled and retreated slightly, holstering his gun. Beelzemon tilted his wings and dove for the much larger Garudamon. "Darkness Claw!"

Garudamon screeched as the claws dug into her chest. Garudamon fell backward screeching as dark energy hissed off the eagle-man's chest.

"Flower Cannon!" A green burst struck Beelzemon between the shoulder blades. The demon lord spun around to find it was the plant fairy, Lillymon.

Beelzemon shook his head and lifted his plasma cannon. "Corona Destroyer!"

Lillymon fell head over heels as she tumbled to the earth. WarGreymon swooped down and caught the fairy digimon. Beelzemon charged and fired his cannon again. WarGreymon scrambled to escape the bolt of energy.

"Giga Missile!" Metal Garurumon flipped backward as a large canister fired forward. Beelzemon turned around and the canister exploded releasing a cloud of liquid nitrogen on the demon lord.

"Corona Blaster!" Beelzemon roared, smashing through the ice that had formed upon him. The beam clipped one of Metal Garurumon's shoulder aero-foils. The metal wolf spun out of control. Beelzemon turned and looked down at the digi-destined, "This is over! I win! Like always!"

"Not always!" boomed a huge voice from the dark clouds above.

Beelzemon winced as a huge red dragon dropped out of the clouds. Large, tattered, red and yellow wings flapped lazily as a wide, dragon's head peered downward at the demon. The head had knobs on the lower jaw and lips. Horns projected up from its skull. It had a pair of arms with huge scaly plates of red armor that covered the upper and lower arms as well as long talons on its hands. The dragon's chest had a white, bone-like, armor on it with a symbol on its chest that was like a three bladed fan.

Behind the red dragon a golden dragon dropped down. Its masked face had a large, grandfatherly beard six heavenly wings twitched as it slightly shifted and changed direction. Its muscular arms were clenched in prayer. It hovered to the left of the red dragon.

A large pink dragon slunk out of the dark clouds. It moved like a cat or an eel, smoothly curling around the other two dragons. It had the head of a goat complete with ribbed swept back horns and beard. A frill of fur framed the dragons face. It had a long tubular body. It had four legs all clawed.

"Dear, dear Beelzemon, I see you got out of the cage…" chuckled the pink dragon as it curled almost too affectionately around the red dragon.

"How, pray tell did you get free?" asked the golden dragon.

"I freed him!" shouted Pal loudly. "And I released you from your bondage!"

"How nice for you," the pink dragon said.

"Who are these guys!?" It was the flame jacketed digi-destined. Pal winced and looked down. The boy was pointing a gloved finger up at the dragons.

"Allow me to introduce you to your lords and masters!" Pal laughed as he flew up to the dragons. He hovered in front of the golden dragon, "This is Goddramon! Holiest of the Great Dragons!" Pal flew in front of the pink dragon, "This is the charming and lovely Great Dragon Holydramon!" Pal tentatively pointed upwards to the red dragon looming above him. Pal gulped, "And this fearsome face here…is the masterful and mighty Lord Megidramon…most powerful of all the Great Dragons…" Pal turned around and clasped his hands together pleadingly. "Please don't kill me…"

"We can't let you get away with this," The digi-destined looked up at Pal.

"Who are these worms?" Megidramon glared down at the digi-destined.

"Oh, they are the digi-destined," Pal said with as little enthusiasm as possible.

"Those humans…" Megidramon roared angrily. The other two dragons trembled as flames flashed from the red dragon's nostrils. "Azulongmon's little apes…his little minions! They will barbecue under my flames!"

"Not if I have something to say about it!" WarGreymon rocketed into the air. He raised his claws. The blades at the end of his gauntlets glowed with orange energy. "Dramon Destroyer!"

"Pff…how quaint a WarGreymon…" Megidramon snorted as he whipped his long tail up. The serrated arrowhead at the end of the tail slapped WarGreymon. The dragon warrior tumbled backward.

"Allow me, Megidramon," Goddramon took a deep breath, "God Flame!"

A stream of golden flames streaked across WarGreymon's body. The warrior screamed loudly retching backward as the flames melted the armor.

"Metal Wolf Claw!" A stream of ice and missiles struck WarGreymon and let the Mega digimon escape the flames, falling to earth like a burnt meteor. Metal Garurumon charged forward energy beams lanced out of his nostrils.

"Oh, there's another one," purred Holydramon as the dragon curled around and spread her wings. "Apocalypse!"

The dragon flapped all her wings. A massive wave of wind filled with electrical energy blew into the charging Metal Garurumon. Metal Garurumon was caught in the wind field. His metal armor popped and exploded as lightning tore through his electrical systems and blew out his hydraulic systems by overheating the fluid in the piping.

"Stop this now!" Thunder roared behind the digi-destined. A blue light filled the sky. A chain of blue lightning lashed Holydramon's front paw. The pink dragon howled and retreated licking the paw like a cat. The other dragons looked up.

"So, brother Azulongmon…you've come…" Megidramon's voice rumbled quietly as he spread his wings. "Have you come to grovel for our forgiveness?"

The children looked up. Hovering over them was the giant force of nature, Azulongmon. A dragon of eastern design, the serpentine body looped east and west across the sky. His phantasmal flesh flickered with electrical energy. The blue and yellow mask on his face sparked as his six red eyes glowed angrily.

"You…" Azulongmon glared at Beelzemon and then Pal. "You fools! How could you let these beasts loose!?"

"Beasts!?" Goddramon growled angrily, "Brother you insult us!"

"I am not your brother!" shouted Azulongmon angrily. A bolt of lightning exploded into the ground.

"Oh come on Azulli…" Holydramon hummed quietly with her luscious, seductive voice. "Join us…together we can rule this world like dragons should…"

"Dragons are protecting spirits!" Azulongmon retorted in annoyance.

"This prattle again…" Megidramon grumbled clenching his fists. "The only way to protect the world is to rule it! It is our duty and right to rule this world! And no one will get in our way, not even someone from our own family."

"Brother, if you rise against us again, you shall be destroyed," Goddramon said seriously his voice rumbling much like Azulongmon's if only an octave lower. "You cannot defeat us alone…"

"Then it is a good thing that he is not alone!" A twisting blast of fire spiraled into Goddramon's chest. The digi-destined ducked as a large, flaming bird, with four fiery wings jetted past.

"He has a new family!" A huge white tiger leapt out of the forest from the west. Its lavender stripes glowed brightly as it funneled energy to its claws. The tiger slashed his claws against Holydramon. The dragon snarled and flapped its wings rising away from the tiger.

"Aye, ye donna wanna be talkin' bout our brottar like t'at again, I'll tell ye what," A giant turtle with two heads and a forest for a shell lumbered forward. Black stones of energy were thrown up at Megidramon. The red dragon snorted and slapped the hailstones away.

"Zhuqiaomon, Baihumon, Ebonwumon…" whispered Azulongmon as he looked at the three holy beasts.

"I can't believe it," whispered Iori as he looked up in awe. "All four Harmonious Ones in the same place at the same time…"

"Yes, when the threat is as large as this," Baihumon growled in his deep, throaty voice. "We couldn't ignore it. We had to come to stop this!"

"You think we fear you're paltry powers, Devas!?" shouted Megidramon. "You are all impotent! You will all perish for the insurrection of our foolish brother!"

"Ach, ye wee ones should run…get as far as ye wee little legs cann carry ye," The right head of the turtle looked down at the digi-destined. "We'll take care o' t'ese snakes…"

"MegaKabuterimon," the red head digi-destined shouted. "Come on, get everyone let's go!"

The large red beetle dropped to the ground picking up most of the digi-destined and their de-evolved partners, putting them on his back. Garudamon picked up Zudomon. The bird was still slightly injured, but could fly. Mimi was propping Lillymon up. The little Ultimate took a full, point blank blast from Beelzemon's Corona Destroyer but the little flower child was still holding up. The two of them scrambled to MegaKabuterimon who gently put them on his back. Taichi and Yamato were running towards the large beetle carrying two little In-Training digimon in their arms. Taichi was holding the pink ball, Koromon, and Yamato was carrying the tan colored, single horned, Tsunomon. Both In-Training digimon were out cold in their partner's arms.

MegaKabuterimon's jets burned as Yamato and Taichi leapt onto the giant beetle's legs. The huge scarab lifted off the ground.

"You may not leave our presence!" shouted Megidramon.

"Beelzemon, be of some use, blast them out of the sky!" Holydramon snapped at the demon who had been hanging in the air, awed by the sheer amount of power that was in the same airspace as he.

The demon blinked and came back to life and pointed his Corona Destroyer at the huge, red scarab.

"Fire that weapon, and you will be eviscerated…" Baihumon snarled loudly curling his long claws.

"Don't fire that weapon and you will burn until there is nothing left of your data to reconstruct…just like your brothers…" Megidramon growled from above Beelzemon, "…charbroiled…"

Beelzemon looked to Baihumon and then up at Megidramon. The Corona Destroyer fired. Baihumon roared loudly. The heavens shook as the tiger leapt upwards brandishing his glowing claws. Baihumon was counter-struck by Holydramon who smashed her claws against his. Azulongmon sliced a whip of lightning down intercepting the Corona Destroyer's damaging effects. The whip of chain and lightning swept upward. Goddramon dove forward and thrust his fist forward.

"Summon! Amon the Destroyer!" A red streak of energy squealed out of the ringlet on Goddramon's left arm. Its golden eyes glowed as it twisted around Azulongmon's chain. The links in the chain started to corrode and snapped.

"Phoenix Fire!" Zhuqiaomon spat bursts of flame at Megidramon as Ebonwumon circled around.

"Phantom Mist!" Clouds of miasma erupted out of Ebonwumon's trees on his back. The clouds swarmed around Megidramon's face.

Megidramon growled. "Hell's Howling!"

The miasma cloud twisted and dispersed. A twisting stream of dusty wind howled out of Megidramon's mouth. The blast swept through Ebonwumon. The forest on the turtle's back defoliated almost immediately.

MegaKabuterimon and Garudamon disappeared in the distance. Pal smirked and decided to disappear before getting caught in the crossfire like Beelzemon had. The demon lord was diving between attacks, trying not to get killed. Pal didn't have time; he needed to get things ready for phase two.

888

Daisuke was facing the rear of MegaKabuterimon. A black storm raged in the distance. Flashes of white, red and blue bubbled through the cloud. He looked down at Veemon. The little dragon was resting quietly. Veemon's head rested in Daisuke's lap.

Daisuke turned his head back to where the others were sitting. They all were looking down, dejected, defeated and demoralized. Daisuke frowned slightly.

"There's a Digi-port about a mile from here," Ken shouted as he looked up. "We should go there."

"What?" Daisuke stood up carefully. MegaKabuterimon's back was smooth and rather slick. "We can't leave!"

"They thrashed us, with their pinky fingers…" Yamato replied. The blonde sighed and looked down at the still unconscious Tsunomon.

"Did you see how easily they took those attacks from the Harmonious Ones?" Iori looked up with his hazel eyes. "If they had been regular Mega digimon, Zhuqiaomon's Blazing Helix would've made them into ash…but Goddramon didn't even seem that badly hurt by it…"

"I know, and now they are taking on all four Harmonious Ones at once…" Miyako said quietly. The pink haired girl was sitting next to Koushiro and her partner, Hawkmon.

"And the scariest thing is that…" Sora looked up sadly and sighed. "The scariest thing is…I think that those dragons might just win…"

"We're over the digi-port," Ken said pointing downward.

MegaKabuterimon lowered slowly to the ground. Garudamon circled below them and put Zudomon down and then landed herself. The two digimon de-digivolved to their Rookie forms. MegaKabuterimon landed and the children and their partners slid down his back and dropped to the ground. After Koushiro landed the mighty insect reverted to Tentomon.

"Mimi, you need to go to New York, so you go first," Taichi said taking control and looking up at the building black clouds on the horizon. "When you get there, talk to Michael and the other New York digi-destined."

"Ok," Mimi said. She prodded Palmon and smiled, "You should see my room I redecorated..." Mimi walked up to the digi-port and opened the portal with her new D-3.

The rest of the children walked up to the digi-port. It was an old computer monitor.

"I don't think we should go…" Daisuke stated sharply as he looked to the others. "I mean we're just running away with our tails between our legs."

"Daisuke," Yamato turned around and looked down at the younger, brown haired boy, "Those dragons are immensely powerful, possibly the most powerful things we've ever faced. They are fighting the Harmonious Ones for crying out loud! We're lucky to be alive!"

Taichi looked at Daisuke, "When we fought the Dark Masters we had the same situation where we were outmatched. A lot of our friends, good friends, sacrificed themselves to protect us. The Harmonious Ones are doing the same thing. We can't let them fight this battle in vain. We have to escape and regroup. Do you understand?"

"Yeah…but…this is twice we've run away…it leaves a sour taste in my mouth," Daisuke frowned and looked up at the sky. "I guess…you're right though…"

"Ok, we're going to go," Taichi called out as he turned to the digi-port and pointed his D-3 at it. "Izzy, when we get there get a hold of Gennai, we need to talk to him."

"Right," The cinnamon haired boy nodded.

"Ready…digi-port open!" The light swarmed out and grabbed the children.

888

They were sitting in Taichi's bedroom, all of them. Koushiro had gone home for a short period to get his laptop. Ken, Iori and Miyako had called their homes, but now all of them were there. Mimi was talking to them over webcam and voice chat.

"Dammit!" Daisuke shouted as he slammed his fist on Taichi's desk. He was sitting on a chair.

The girls were sitting on Taichi's bed. They startled and looked up. The boys were sitting on the floor, except Jyou who was standing, leaning on the bed post of the bunk bed. Koushiro was sitting cross-legged with his computer on his lap. Taichi stood up and put his hand on Daisuke's shoulder. Motimon, Bukamon, Tsunomon, Koromon and Yokomon jumped slightly. They were resting on the floor in front of the boys. Salamon was sitting on Hikari's lap. Patamon was on Takeru's head. DemiVeemon shuddered slightly on Daisuke's lap. Poromon and Upamon were sitting on their partners' lap and Ken was holding Minomon.

"This is horrible…" Ken whispered as he looked down.

"It's not the end of the world…" Koushiro said quietly. "I've looked, most of the Digital World is stable, the only places where the battle took place are…heavily damaged."

Daisuke glared at the floor angrily and clenched his fist into a tighter ball. He punched the desktop again. "Dammit! We should've stayed and helped!"

"And gotten ourselves killed?" Miyako asked as she looked up at Daisuke through her glasses. She was wearing a blue shirt and blue jeans.

"We have to eventually risk our lives," Daisuke said. "Every time we run away someone gets hurt. The Harmonious Ones gave their lives…to save us…"

"It was their choice," Jyou said quietly. "We have to accept that they are gone…that we are alone…"

"We aren't alone," Mimi's voice chirped over the speakers of Tai's computer. "We have our friends in the Digital World."

"And Gennai," Koushiro pointed out.

"Guys, it's getting late…" Sora looked up at the others' tired and yawning faces. "I know this is an emergency but we're not going to come up with things half asleep and cranky. I think we should all go home and sleep tonight…"

"Sora's right," Yamato stifled a huge yawn.

"We should be out there!" Daisuke shouted.

"Daisuke," Hikari looked up. "I know you feel very bad. We all do, but we won't accomplish anything maimed or dead. Please, Daisuke…"

Daisuke took a deep breath and looked down, "I'm sorry. It's just these sorts of things bother me…I hate running away, especially when it gets someone hurt." Daisuke looked and flashed a smile, "but Sora's right, we won't get anything done if we're all tired. Plus we have school tomorrow…we'll talk tomorrow."

The others nodded and stood up. Taichi and Hikari walked their friends to the door of their apartment. The children all said 'goodnight' and filed out. Taichi closed the door and leaned against it.

"This has gotten ugly hasn't it?" Hikari asked quietly as she looked down at Salamon.

"Yeah…it has," Taichi said as he walked from the door and leaned down, scooping up Koromon, "It's gotten real ugly…"


	9. The Island of Forgotten Digimon

**I don't own digimon.**

**The Island of Forgotten Digimon**

**888**

"In little more than seventeen hours the Great Dragons have overshadowed the north and south regions with their power," Koushiro was standing at the head of the computer lab. The projector screen was lowered and the PowerPoint slide was being projected showed a map of the Digital World. It was like a pie graph with the north and south quarters darkened. "This means a good chunk of the Continent of Server has been conquered. The Southern Continent, Folder has also nearly fallen under Dragon control." Koushiro looked up. His audience included Daisuke, Miyako, Hikari, Takeru, Iori and Jyou. Taichi had soccer practice and being the captain of the team kind of made it mandatory for him. Yamato had a meeting with a mall executive about a concert he was having. Sora had to work with her mother at the flower shop and Ken had yet to arrive. Koushiro clicked a button and the map attained a small red blip amongst the darkened areas. "The dragons have conquered more than forty times the amount of land Ken captured at the height of his power. Mind you this has all been in seventeen hours."

"Jeesh, by the end of the day they'll have the entire Digital World under their control," Jyou sighed as he looked up at the screen. "And we've not even figured out a way of giving them an irritating rash, let alone defeating them…"

"Nice to see you're keeping the hope up…" Takeru said with a smirk.

"Just being practical," Jyou said defensively.

"Now, I say conquer…maybe that's too strong of a word," Koushiro started as he turned around. "These are the borders of their controlled territories, but according to Gennai and other intelligence reports the dragons have yet to gather the man power to truly claim having conquered the area…more like…enclosed the area. There are resistance cells all over. Many of the small digimon nations such as Tyranomon Valley, the Metal City and a number of others are still free of dragon control…but…"

"But what?" Daisuke looked at the cinnamon haired boy with interest.

Koushiro clicked the little PowerPoint remote again. Four red dots flickered to life. Each one of the dots was in the middle of each of the Harmonious Ones' territory. "These dots are the four Primary Villages of the Digital World. The Dragons were quick to gobble up the Northern and Southern Primary Villages. Conversations with Gennai suggest they aren't just occupying the villages but actually stealing a certain component of the villages…"

"No…they wouldn't…" Salamon hopped up on the table in front of Hikari.

"What's wrong?" Iori looked at the puppy-kitten with curiosity; in fact all the children did, as did several of the digimon.

"The Primary Villages are where digimon are reconstituted into digi-eggs," Salamon replied looking up at the screen. "The reason why there are only four Primary villages is because it takes incredible power to funnel, control and reconstitute that much data…and these villages have a mechanism to do it…A sort of weaving program…a loom if you will…"

"And anyone who controls the looms, control the data being reconstituted…" The children looked back. Ken was standing in the doorway of the computer room. Minomon was sitting on his shoulder.

"Furthermore, the dragons seemed to have taken the Dark Digicore with them," Koushiro replied with a nod.

"Oh no," Motimon hopped up. The little digimon was looked like a sheet drawn over a small person with tiny round arms. "The Dark Digicore was a pain enough when the DemiMamon had it; can you imagine the damage it could cause in the hands of those dragons?"

"The matter continues to get worse," Koushiro sighed as he clicked his remote. An image jumped up. A fleet of Airdramon, with red eyes, was flying over a city in flames. "These Airdramon had been allies with this city, to the extent of fighting to protect it during Etemon's reign, when we were first getting our tags and crests. It seems the Great Dragons have the ability to take over other dragons, or have some sort of hypnotic power…"

"Dragons are loyal digimon," DemiVeemon piped up. "Even over the millennia many dragons still believe in the virtues of the Great Dragons, think of it as an instinctive loyalty. Almost any dragon digimon will turn to the service of the Great Dragons. The only ones that won't are those who have been touched by human energy."

"So the dragons have three sources for armies now?" Miyako shook her head and dropped into her hands.

"And they are preparing to diversify their armies…" Koushiro clicked his remote again.

The slide was one of an island. Its epicenter was dominated by a huge mountain. Ice dominated its northern region, desert the south. An industrial region seemed to fill the western quarter of the island and a vast rainforest was dominating the eastern beaches.

"Is that…" Takeru and Jyou stood up. "That's…"

"The Island of Format, in the west" Koushiro said as he clicked his remote. Jyou and Takeru blinked and sat down crestfallen. The slide changed revealing a city made of giant Lincoln logs. Bassinets littered the streets between the Lincoln log forts. "And this is the Primary Village…the actual '_Primary_' Village, the definitive article you may say. It was the first of the Primary Villages created when the Digital World came online. From here programs were copied and pasted. All the other Primary Villages are modified replicas of it…In fact File Island and Format Island are actually back up systems of each other…evidently when the Dark Masters first attacked, they took over the Island of Format first…which is why we ended up going to File Island. So this should be kind of creepy…"

"What should be kind of creepy?" Jyou asked incredulously as he lifted and eyebrow and peered at the cinnamon haired boy over the rims of his glasses.

"Well, it'll be a bit like a parallel universe, where everything's kind of the same but also different…" Koushiro replied as he looked at the others' confused looks.

"Why are we talking about it again?" Takeru said shaking his head.

Koushiro blinked and then smiled, "Oops, sorry, we're going there. An aerial and sea based invasion force was seen moving towards the island. According to Gennai, the Island of Format is a bit like a secret garden, there are a lot of old style digimon there, and evidently its primary village is the only one that has the data form key for four very rare digimon…"

Koushiro's eyes flashed over Upamon, DemiVeemon and Poromon.

"You mean…" Poromon hopped out of Miyako's lap. "The Island of Format…"

"But we were supposed to be the only ones," DemiVeemon blinked and shook his head.

"They said we were legends, myths…" Upamon hopped up on the table in front of Iori. "That our existence was a miracle…"

"It appears that everyone was wrong," Koushiro said as he clicked his remote.

The digi-destined gasped loudly. It was on screen, clear as day. A group of five Veemon and another group of Hawkmon and Armadillomon, and a group of purple furred digimon that looked like half dragon and half fox were plowing a field. The half fox creatures had bushy tails with white tips but also had small bat-like wings on their shoulders.

"You mean I'll get to see your brothers and sisters," Miyako nearly squealed with excitement as she hugged Poromon tightly, nearly squishing the little ball of feathers and beak into a pancake.

"There is one thing I should say," Koushiro looked at the digi-destined sternly. "The island hasn't the most hospitable of reputations. It seems that the island, for a very long time had a bit of a magical spell around it to keep people out and only interacted with the rest of the Digital World once every century…"

"A bit like Brigadoon then?" Jyou said with a smile.

"Briga-what?" Daisuke looked back at the blue haired boy.

"It's a story that's about a town that only appears once a century," Iori explained in his hushed way.

"Yes, but it seems that the island's defense has disappeared since Baihumon's…" Koushiro frowned, "Since the Dragons started taking over. So the island has become exposed. The digimon don't like the fact they have to ask for help from outsiders…so…"

Everyone turned to Daisuke.

"Watch what you say, and don't infuriate them!" Miyako growled angrily.

"If you promise not to stick your foot in your mouth," Daisuke shot back.

"I don't stick my foot in my mouth!" Miyako retorted angrily. "I'm not some goggle blinded nitwit like you!"

"Oh yeah, this is going to go real smoothly," Jyou whispered as he looked to Takeru and Hikari.

888

"Volcamon! Volcamon!" shouted the gruff, young voice of a small, lion cub that was bounding down the streets of the Lincoln log village.

The metal man who was being shouted at stood up with a grunt from his work on a large radar dish. Wires were hanging out of a small cubby hole on the metallic, boxy stand the dish was resting on. A small volcano on the metal puffed with smoke. The man's physique was wide shouldered like a professional wrestler or American football player.

"What issit now, Leormon?" the man snorted as he rubbed his face with oily hands, leaving dark smudges on his head.

He took off his greenish cap revealing a truly chrome dome. He rubbed his metal scalp and looked down at the little lion. A gold collar was around its neck and the yellowish fur had an ever so light amount of brown dappling. The small orange mane that propped up on the top of its head like a Mohawk was ruffled into a wild tuft.

"Tell me you have the sensor system online!?" the little lion looked up at the metal man with green eyes filled with wavering concern.

"Jeesh, I'm makin' this out of scraps from the industrial region of ta island," Volcamon snorted as he turned and kneeled down on the ground with one knee. He put his hands into the box below the satellite dish. "You know this is prime, first class jiggerypokery; it takes a lot of time. I had to cannibalize lots of wiring, and chips…make 'em compatible…and then you come along with your incessant yelping…"

"I'm the guardian of the Primary Village!" Leormon retorted loudly as he bounded up next to the man as his metal fingers brought up three wires. Leormon narrowed his hazel eyes, "You know it's not easy. Dinohumon and Apemon are fighting in the forest; no one can get a hold of them. Sagittarimon refuses to come out of the ruins until he's satisfied there is no way to resurrect the distortion plinth that protected us from outside intrusion."

"Ah, t'at dratted fool, I told him five times if I've told him a million t'at even if ta juice boards weren't shot to heck and gone t'ere is no way we'd find a digicore with ta same output capabilities as Baihumon's…" Volcamon muttered as he glared at the three wires in his hands.

"And don't even get me started about how Lynxmon and Pandamon refuse to talk to me because of the whole argument over asking for help from the digi-destined. And then Icemon and Hyougamon are complaining about having to travel cross-island to help in the battle. They wanted to stay in their areas to help stop invasion there. They don't realize that we're undermanned here!" Leormon sighed and laid down putting his head on his front paws. He looked up at metal digimon. Volcamon hadn't moved at all since taking up the wires and the small volcano on his back puffed quietly. "What are you doing?"

"Shush…I'm tryin' ta think here," Volcamon grumbled as his eyes focused on the wires. The two in his right hand were red and blue and the wire in his left hand was green. "Now…is it red to green….or blue to green…" Volcamon tilted his head back and forth humming to himself. "Ah that's right…blueberry to grape makes the charge go straight…" Volcamon smirked to himself and touched the blue wire to the green. The volcano on his back erupted, spewing flecks of lava everywhere as the cyborg swore loudly and yanked the wires apart. "Rrrr! See you got me confused with your jabberin'; it's strawberry to grape!" Volcamon snatched the red wire up and pressed it against the green wire. Leormon winced as the metal digimon yowled and shook slightly as the wires sparked angrily from the connection. Volcamon jolted and pulled the wires apart. Smoke rolled off of Volcamon's hat as he took several deep breaths. "mmm, well…let's see 'ere…" Volcamon rummaged about in box underneath the radar dish. He pulled out a circuit board and clicked his tongue in his mouth as his finger ran across the circuits. "Well, I'll be jellied. It's grape to banana…" Volcamon reached in and pulled out a yellow wire and attached it safely to the green one. He sighed in relief and attached the red to the blue. "Mmm, well, let's see; flip this circuit closed…now to hook 'er up to the mainframe."

Volcamon slid the circuit board and makeshift wiring back into the box underneath the dish and closed the access panel. He ran over to a huge cable and walked along it. Leormon hopped to his feet and followed the metal man. Volcamon's gate was rather like that of a farmers' with a bit of robust, forward jaunt mixed with work-worn, industrial limp. The metal man snorted and pulled the plug up to his hands and jabbed it into a plug-in on one of the Lincoln log cabins.

The radar dish shuddered to life and lifted. It twisted back and forth and Leormon nearly bounced around cheering as the cyborg walked past him.

"You did it! You really did it!" Leormon cheered as he bounded behind the metal man.

"Well, now for the Coup de Gracie…." Volcamon murmured as he walked up to a smaller box that was attached to the circuit box under the radar dish. "Whipped this up earlier this morning…" Volcamon reached down and pressed a red button on the front of the smaller box. The cyborg leapt backward really quickly and held Leormon back. The air around the radar dish setup shimmered. It enveloped an egg-shaped dome that surrounded the entirety of the radar dish. "That there is a genuine energy shield barrier thingamajig…"

"You made that this morning!?" Leormon was on the edge of a massive gawp of surprise as his, now plate sized, eyes looked up at Volcamon with the kind of respect that one gives a person they greatly underestimated.

"Well…the Clockmon helped out with a bit of the electro-physics…" Volcamon coughed modestly, gently rubbing his nose. "Those blasted dragons won't be blowin' this baby up…that's for sure. Put too much effort into it for it to be blown to kingdom come in the first five minutes…"

"Hey, do you think we can get a hold of the others now, that the mainframe is fully functional?" Leormon followed the metal man into the Lincoln log cabin.

Two rows of wooden picnic tables with several old Apricot computer monitors lined the tops of the tables. Wires hung under the tables plugged densely into old power strips. The wires themselves had black electrical tape and even duct tape around their torn insulation. Dirty keyboards were in front of the old style monitors. Telephone wires, bundled together with duct tape, crisscrossed the aisle between the two rows of tables and finally all joined into a very old, computer mainframe. Two sets of film reel like objects whirred quietly on the face of the seven foot tall computing behemoth.

"Lucky if ta stupid thing doesn't blow a fuse," snorted Volcamon as a set of crackles from the wiring announced themselves with a whiff of light ozone. "But, yeah, should be able to talk to everyone…"

"Wonderful," Leormon hopped up on the picnic benches and looked at the screens. One showed a picture of a forest, the other of an icy waist land, third an Asian thatched roof village, fourth a desert, a mountain cliff and a beach. There were microphones sticking in Leormon's face. The lion cub coughed and talked into the microphones. "Anyone awake out there?"

The monitor showing the forest shook to life as a chameleon's head shimmered out of the foliage. "Forest terminal…who's this?"

"Primary Village, we're just testing out the communication systems. Good to see the Chamelemon out there," the cub nearly giggled uncontrollably as he drummed his front paws on the table top in excitement. "Thunderbirmon, can you hear me!?"

"Yes, I hear you, Leormon," A giant blue bird with lightning designed armor appeared on the mountain screen. Its tail was sharp and jagged. The bird looked back. "Pteramon scouts are just now coming back in…"

"Right, thanks," Leormon stifled an uproarious giggle. He turned around to the other row of tables and bounded across the aisle to them. He narrowed his eyes and put on an aggravated frown, "Dinohumon, Apemon, Sagittarimon, Icemon, Hyougamon, Pandamon, Lynxmon, get your butts to Primary Village, now! No excuses, no whining!"

"Leormon!?" The lion cub hopped around to the other row of monitors. A large sea turtle dominated the beach screen.

"Leormon here," the lion cub replied into the microphone.

"We have incoming," The turtle replied, "seems to be a scout. It's one large digimon…maybe a handful more riding astride the main target."

"Probably testing our sea defenses…" Leormon growled as he glared at the screen. He turned his head to a third set of computer monitors, these were of the design of Cassinios…They showed the same map three times. The first was marked, radar, the second sonar and the last seismograph. The lion cub blinked and looked at the metal man with the volcano on his back. "A seismograph?"

"What? Yah never know, you don't wannan unexpected tsunami to snatch victory from us, now do ya?" Volcamon snorted his volcano puffed angry plumes of smoke.

Leormon shook his head in exasperation and turned back to the screen labeled 'sonar'. "We do show a contact moving towards the island. I suggest you take up full defense positions. Ladies and Gentlemen we're going to war!" Leormon hopped across the aisle and touched on the microphones that patched him into his 'generals'. "Hey guys, could you speed it up a bit. We're going to be engaging the enemy soon!"

Leormon turned to Volcamon. The metal man was sitting on a bench fiddling with a headset. The headset was plugged into what looked like a cobbled together CB box.

"Heh, this is for the digi-destined when they get here, I figure it won't do any good to have them flyin' 'bout all higgledeepiggly," Volcamon said as he screwed a few pieces together.

"Say that again…" Leormon blinked quietly and turned back to the metal man.

"Well, we want to be coordinated, don't want them all higgledee…" Volcamon started.

"No…before that…" Leormon said slowly.

"This headset is for the digi-destined…" Volcamon said quietly.

"Oh…this is not good…" Leormon stared emptily at the sonar screen watching as several blue dots left the shore of the island to intercept the red dot.

888

"Wow, out here, you wouldn't know that there's an invasion force coming," Veemon put his hand over his eyes like a visor and looked over the gray ocean ahead of them.

His feet were placed firmly on Zudomon's leathery shell. The little blue dragon turned his head to his partner who was standing further back holding the spikes that jutted out of the green shell. Hawkmon and Armadillomon were standing next to him both smiling almost giddily pointing at the mountain peak that scratched the sky ahead of them. Patamon and Salamon looked at each other. They were standing by the other humans who were all standing along the line row of spikes that arched along the spine of the turtle-walrus's shell.

"The ocean's so calm," Daisuke took a deep breath and sighed happily.

"It's called the calm before the storm," Jyou said as he looked up gently adjusting his glasses on his nose.

"One brief gasp of peace before all heck breaks loose," Tentomon buzzed from behind Koushiro. The large, spiked ladybug hummed forward. Tentomon pointed a clawed arm forward to two streaks flying through the water. "Speaking of which….what's that?"

"Mmm, if I didn't know better…" Zudomon started. He was interrupted by explosions that caused the huge, shelled walrus to shudder and ocean water to spray all over. Zudomon groaned loudly. "…Missiles…"

"Umm, this isn't good," Koushiro said. His arms hugged one of Zudomon's back spikes.

"Here comes another!" shouted Tentomon as he buzzed furiously.

"Armadillomon, we gotta help," Iori jumped forward.

"Right!" Armadillomon nodded.

"Then let's go!" Iori lifted his D-3. "Digi-armor Energize!"

"Armadillomon armor digivolve to…" The golden armadillo glowed and plunged into the water as a steel and purple submarine with a serrated nose and a shark-like tail. "Submarimon Reliable Guardian of the Sea!"

The cockpit on the forehead of the submarine slid open. Iori slid down Zudomon's back and he hopped into the cockpit laying on his stomach and putting his hands on the controls. The cockpit slid shut and slipped under the waves.

The ocean was whirling in all directions as two huge missiles shot past. Submarimon twisted around and fired two Oxygen Torpedoes at the missiles as they fled towards Zudomon. The missiles exploded a meter before striking Zudomon. Iori sighed and brought Submarimon around.

"Let's find out what's going on!" Iori hissed as he pushed forward on the controls. Submarimon's turbines whirred angrily as the digimon plunged through the water. Iori looked down, "I see them, three of them ahead of us…"

"I see 'em!" Submarimon cut his engines and hovered in the water.

Before the digimon were three digimon. On the left was a huge sea turtle with a spiked back and bladed fins. On the right was a large manta ray; its huge, wing-like fins rose and fell gently. In the middle was a large curling shark, but it wasn't a shark. It had huge armor fittings on its body and sharp looking fins.

"I know these guys," Submarimon whispered quietly. "The turtle is Archelomon, the sting ray is Mantaraymon, and the one in the middle is Tylomon. They aren't dragon digimon…"

"Then why are they attacking us!?" Iori shouted into Submarimon's speakers.

"You are the advance scouts of the Dramon invasion corps," Tylomon growled in annoyance swishing its tail back and forth aggressively.

"No we're not! We're the digi-destined!" Iori looked out the clear Plexiglas.

The three digimon looked at each other and then back at Iori and Submarimon.

"Prove it…" Tylomon snarled as the shark glared at Submarimon.

"If we were the dragons, don't you think we'd have attacked back by now, smashed through your defenses?" Iori replied in annoyance.

"He has a point," Archelomon said turning his fleshy, scaly neck to the shark.

"It could be a lie!?" Mantaraymon said in a bubbly voice. "Subversion!"

"I'm a human for crying out loud!" shouted Iori loudly from within Submarimon.

"Tylomon…" The turtle looked up at the shark. "He is a human…"

"Yeah, I guess there is a human in there…" Mantaraymon said tilting his broad, flat face slightly.

"Oh, fine!" Tylomon snorted angrily, "but I swear if you're really a dragon…"

Iori rolled his eyes at the veiled threat. He tapped slightly on the joystick and Submarimon turned and whirred back to Zudomon. The three digimon followed him. Submarimon surfaced next to Zudomon and Iori strained, clambering onto the shelled back of the walrus digimon. Zudomon scooped Submarimon up as he returned to Armadillomon.

"Did you get things sorted?" Miyako called down to Iori as he climbed up Zudomon's back.

"Yes, it was a combination of paranoia and mistaken identity…" Iori looked up and took the hand of Jyou who pulled him up.

"Just in time, too," Hikari stated. Iori and Jyou looked back at the short, brown haired girl. She had a small, spy scope and was holding up to the sky. Iori looked up. Spots speckled the sky in the distance.

"What are they?" whispered Ken as he lifted his hand into a visor.

Daisuke hopped up behind the girl. She handed him the spy scope. The flame jacketed boy whistled as he passed the scope around.

"Some of them are Airdramon," Takeru said as he looked through the small telescope.

"The others look like some sort of dragon dressed in knight's armor…" Daisuke rubbed his head.

"Either way there has to be hundreds of them…thousands…" Koushiro stated quietly. "It would be a good idea to get to the island as fast as possible."

"Follow us," Tylomon poked his head above the surface of the water. "We'll escort you to the shore. An armada of Ebidramon has been seen by our scouts."

"Let's go Zudomon," Jyou said as he looked back at the ocean behind them. Somewhere down there an unseen fleet was making its way towards them.

The turtle backed walrus shifted slightly and moved steadily forward as Tylomon disappeared under the waves. The children fanned out over Zudomon's back searching the sky and water.

"Hey, what are these fish?" Takeru pointed into the water. Swarms of small, green fish with sharp triangular fins flitted around Zudomon. They had hard, parrot-like beaks.

"Those are Swimmon," Patamon stated as the wing-eared guinea pig stated as he hovered over Takeru's head. "They are usually peaceful fish that school around coral reefs, but you don't want to get them mad…those beaks of theirs can crack granite and they can fire a stream of water at their enemies."

A seahorse shaped digimon swept under Zudomon's body and dashed through the Swimmon. As if by order the school of digital parrotfish swirled around and swam towards the open water.

"That's Seahomon, he's considered the protector of the coral reef," Salamon chirped. Takeru looked up. Hikari and her puppy partner had sidled up next to him.

One of Tylomon's sharp fins cut through the water the shark digimon surfaced and looked up at the children. "One of our men, Depthmon is engaging the enemy at the island trench…"

"I take it that Seahomon and the Swimmon are going to go back him up…" Takeru said looking down at the shark digimon.

"No, to cover his retreat…he's regrouping at the edge of the coral reef, we'll strike them there…" Tylomon stated as he slipped back under the water.

"This is really happening…" Patamon said in amazement.

"Land ho!" shouted Zudomon as he rose out of the breaking waves.

He hauled his wet, heavy body out of the water and the digi-destined and their digimon leapt down. They were met by a very strange digimon. It had the head of a dolphin and the body of a penguin and a lifesaver was hitched up around its waist.

"Hello, I am Orcamon," crackled the wheezy voice of the digimon. "I am glad to see you. You are needed at the Primary Village. That forest path will take you straight there…"

The digimon pointed at a dirt path that weaved through the fronds of ferns and the tress of a rainforest.

"Thanks," Daisuke shouted as he and Veemon ran forward. The others started to run towards the forest, all of them but Jyou.

Koushiro stopped and turned around. "Jyou are you coming?"

"You know, I think the others need Zudomon and me here," Jyou shouted back.

"Ok," Koushiro waved his hand as he and Tentomon moved towards the path.

888

The rocks exploded around him as he pressed his arms against his armored body, his tail sweeping up and down behind him. The Ebidramon were more in number than they had expected and had quickly overrun his Crabmon troops. Streaks of pressurized water swooshed over his head as he continued to swim vertically to the edge of the undersea cavern. He saw them breaking over the ridge, hundreds of Swimmon. A larger, sleeker form swam through the middle of the wave of parrotfish. Its trumpet like nose gave it away as Seahomon. The identification was solidified as a twisting spectrum of color lanced through the water, exploding into the depths below.

Depthmon twisted and looked down. Ebidramon were crawling up the walls of the canyon like ants up a kitchen wall. One of Seahomon's spectrum blasts struck a group of Ebidramons' red, plated exoskeletons, dislodging the lobster digimon from the canyon wall and sending them tumbling slowly backward. They flailed their heavy clawed arms through the water.

Depthmon looked up and bolted flapping the tail fin of his fishy, lower body. He reached the canyon's ridge and floated amongst the flotilla of Swimmon who had their beaked mouths pointed down spewing pressurized jets down at the oncoming Ebidramon. Depthmon took a deep gillful of water and sighed, seeing the majority of his troops had safely retreated to the ridge.

"Seahomon, nice to see you," Depthmon said as the seahorse rose up behind him.

The armored seahorse with its sharply spined headdress and feather-like pectoral fins nodded. "There are more than we expected…Tylomon has said we should regroup at the coral reef, the Syakomon are ready for full artillery cover fire."

"It's not enough…" Depthmon called as he waved his Crabmon forces into full retreat. Seahomon and the Swimmon were swimming alongside him. "There are too many, the Syakomon's fire power will only bounce off their hard shells…It seems the dragons actually thought about this. They sent hard-shelled tanks like Ebidramon instead of soft skinned Seadramon. They were anticipating a big firefight."

"The humans have arrived," Seahomon announced as he turned his head back. His trumpet like nose fired a twisting rainbow beam back towards the ridge making the rocks explode at the ridge and repelling a pair of Ebidramon claws that were rising up out of the canyon. Seahomon looked up at Depthmon's masked face. "They travel with a Zudomon who is currently holding position on the beach."

"That is a strategic advantage…" Depthmon stated as he looked up. Huge spires of coral rose up in front of him. "We may be able to hold the beach then…"

888

Koushiro and Tentomon ran into the village. The cinnamon haired boy gasped as he looked forward. Groups of Hawkmon and Armadillomon were pushing basinets into the log cabins that lined the streets. Koushiro tugged his green jacket and straightened his tie as he walked forward. Tentomon gulped as he looked as the street filled with digimon.

A large bipedal panda walked forward, glaring down at Koushiro. A flaming cat was standing next to the panda, coming up to the bearish digimon's knee. Behind the cat was a digimon that looked like an enlarged, white Gotsumon. A blue ogre stepped forward. It looked like Ogremon's brother. He had the same scraggily white hair, the gnarled teeth and knobby muscles in his arms and legs; the only real difference was the blue skin and the huge ice crystals jutting out of the ogre's shoulders. A flame armored centaur walked forward. An orange furred ape digimon was leaning against one of the cabins. It had long arms and legs. It twitched its long, triangular ears. Its face seemed tiny in the fluffy mane of fur around its head. On the opposite side of the street a reptilian digimon was leaning on a giant halberd. Its face was round with a band around its forehead. Lavender pants covered its scaly legs.

Koushiro walked forward and looked at the digimon. A small lion cub hopped between the legs of the assembled digimon and looked up at Koushiro. The young man knelt down.

"I wasn't expecting this big of a welcoming party…" Koushiro admitted as he smiled at the cub. "I take it you are Leormon…"

"Yes, Volcamon is in the cabin with the mainframe…" Leormon stated with a smile. Leormon turned around, "Allow me to introduce you to the digimon that will be helping us."

Koushiro looked up as Leormon introduced the digimon. The bear digimon was called Pandamon. The black skinned, red armored centaur was named Sagittarimon. The flaming cat snorted and bared his saber like fangs as Leormon told Koushiro that his name was Lynxmon. The monkey was named Apemon and the primate glared across the street as the reptile digimon's name, Dinohumon, was uttered. The large Gotsumon was evidently named Icemon and his friend the blue Ogremon was known as Hyougamon.

Koushiro sighed when he heard Miyako and Daisuke shouting at each other. The aggression coming in sheets from the digimon in the street was making him tremble. Tentomon was hiding behind Koushiro and he could feel the claws at the end of the insect's arms resting on his shoulders.

"Umm, let me introduce you," Koushiro said as he turned around. Miyako had pushed Daisuke backward back into the forest. Hikari, Iori and Takeru and their partners walked past Daisuke as he floundered in the bushes. "This is Inoue Miyako and Hawkmon, Yagami Hikari and Salamon, Takaishi Takeru and Patamon, Hida Iori and Armadillomon, Ichijouji Ken and Wormmon, I'm Izumi Koushiro and this is my partner Tentomon…and well, that's…" Koushiro looked up as Daisuke's fluffed up, spiky brown hair rose out of the bushes. Daisuke reached back and pulled Veemon forward. "This is…Motomiya Daisuke and…"

"HEATHEN!" roared Lynxmon as the flaming cat leapt over Koushiro and the other's head and brought his claws crashing down in front of Daisuke and Veemon.

Daisuke dropped backward. Veemon hopped in front of the boy and clenched his fists. "What are you doing!?"

"You said you were bringing us help, Leormon!" Lynxmon growled angrily. The fiery mane on the back of his neck flared angrily. "And you bring this…this traitor!"

"Who are you calling a traitor!?" Veemon looked into the green eyes of Lynxmon.

"You!" Lynxmon snorted and took a clawed step forward. "You disgusting dragon…you and your kind…"

"I don't know what you're talking about…" Veemon scrunched his horned nose.

"Lynxmon! Get back here!" Leormon shouted as he bounded between the flaming cat and the little blue dragon. The lion cub turned his head, "I'm really sorry about this…I should've anticipated this kind of reaction…"

"What's going on?" Salamon shouted as she looked at the snarling lynx as it turned its back angrily and returned to the other digimon.

The others were all in higher states of agitation, glaring at Veemon and clenching their fists. Leormon giggled weakly and then coughed.

"It…uh…it happened about…well it happened last night…" Leormon looked up at the digi-destined and then the indigenous digimon and looked down again. "Right after the umm, plinth stopped working…and well…we were scrambling to figure it out what had happened when all of a sudden…"

Leormon walked over to a Lincoln log cabin and pushed the door open. He indicated with a head nod for the children to follow him. The children walked into the cabin and as their eyes adjusted from sunlight to the darkness of the inside of the cabin. They were all lying on cots, tied down by cords. Blue skinned dragons and purple furred, fluff tailed dragon fox. A group of white sheet digimon with witch hats was floating around. At first Koushiro thought they were Bakemon but then he looked up at the hats.

"What's going on?" Iori whispered as he walked along the beds.

"Like I said it was last night," Leormon sighed as he looked at the slumbering figures. "We were transporting power cells to the ruins where the plinth was…when all of a sudden all the Veemon and the DORUmon went crazy and attempted to jump us…"

"The dragon loyalty…" whispered Veemon as he looked at the digimon that looked just like him.

"These guys are DORUmon?" Miyako put her hands on the furry white face of the foxish digimon. "They're dragons?"

"They are the first digimon to walk on the Digital World," Leormon said quietly. "They were a prototype and are incredibly hardy…" Leormon sighed quietly as he looked around, "We had to put them to sleep for our and their protection; fortunately the Soulmon know a spell that knocked them out." The lion cub looked at Veemon, "I'm really sorry. I should've told the others about you, but with getting the sensor systems ready and forming defense plans and smoothing things out, I forgot."

"It's ok," Veemon gave the lion a halfhearted smile.

"Leormon!" shouted a gruff voice. "You better be gettin' out 'ere!"

"That's Volcamon," the lion cub bounded toward the door. "He's our resident mechanic…"

The children slowly trailed out of the cabin and back into the sunlight. The digimon in the street glared at Daisuke and Veemon. The two of them ignored the digimon and walked up to a man sized digimon. His body was covered in metal and his back had a volcano on its back.

"Leormon, Thunderbirmon has confirmed contact with the aerial dragon forces," Volcamon took his hat off and rubbed his metal scalp. "I have them on radar. The Pteramon are currently engaging the enemy…"

"Who are we fighting?" Leormon asked abruptly.

"Airdramon are composin' more t'an 'alf of t'e force but thar being augmented by Maildramon," Volcamon replied looking up into the sky.

"Maildramon…are they the dragons that looked like they are wearing the armor of a knight?" Hikari asked with a soft voice.

"Yes," the metal man said.

"How long?" Leormon looked up at volcano backed man.

"Ach, I bet hedgin' on the good sider things maybe an hour," Volcamon said rubbing his chin. He looked up and pointed, "but then again…could be now…"

Leormon blinked and looked into the sky. Winged, snake forms were lazily gliding over the village. His eyes looked at everyone around him.

"Stragglers," Leormon said simply. "Everyone to defense stations, we have a breach in aerial defenses; prepare for bombardment!"

The indigenous digimon grunted and split up. Lynxmon and Apemon took up positions on the roofs of some of the cabins. Hyougamon and Dinohumon scrambled to the middle of the village in front of a clunky looking radar dish. Icemon and Pandamon pushed through the digi-destined and took up positions at the edge of the forest. Sagittarimon looked up and lifted his arm. There was a bow attached to the arm. He reached back and pulled an arrow. The digi-destined watched as he put the arrow in the bow, pulled it back and released it. The arrow fired through the air leaving a dark streak behind it. The arrow disappeared in the sky. It didn't take long before the arrow's presence appeared again. One of the Airdramon hovering over the sky suddenly arched and writhed in the air before exploding into dust.

"You…you…you KILLED IT!" Miyako screeched, glaring at the centaur as he looked down at the girl with disinterest.

"Child, this is a war, we aren't fighting for petty little things like saving our ideologies or helping someone…we're fighting for our lives," replied the centaur. His voice was deep and had bone shattering authority behind it. "We simply can't be happy with turning our enemies away with a wag of a finger and a few, curt 'naughty naughties'. They will kill us, if we do not kill them first."

"But…but…" Miyako blinked looking up at the centaur in shock and Koushiro was sure just a tinge of disgust.

"This isn't the time for an argument!" Lynxmon's voice roared from the roof, "Either help or go home, we don't have time for whiners!"

"I'm not a whiner!" snarled Miyako. Koushiro sighed as he watched the girl pull her D-3 out. "Hawkmon, let's get up there!"

"But Miyako…maybe it should be prudent that we take a position less, forefront…so as to not be forced into an uncomfortable and dangerous…" The little brick red hawk looked up at his partner.

"No, I won't be called useless by these guys!" Miyako growled as she looked down at the hawk. "Digi-armor Energize!"

"Hawkmon armor digivolve to…" Hawkmon shimmered and morphed into a four-legged gryphon like digimon. A metal mantle fell on the gryphon's head and the metal fanned out into two large airfoils. "Halsemon: The Wings of Love."

Miyako leapt onto the gryphon and gripped it by the airfoils. "Let's go, Halsemon!"

"If you think this is best…" Halsemon replied and hovered off the ground.

"Wait for us, Miyako!" Hikari and Takeru held out their D-3. "Digi-armor Energize!"

"Patamon armor digivolve to…" The wing-eared hamster glowed as he legs elongated and became hoofed. A silky golden tail flitted out of the hamster's back. Large golden wings unfurled as an equine head emerged with a yellow mane. Golden armor synched down around the chest of the orange horse and a golden helmet fell over the horse's face. "…Pegasusmon: Flying Hope!"

Takeru leapt on the horse's back as it took off.

"Salamon armor digivolve to…" The puppy kitten burst with light. Large white wings unfurled and a sweeping tail flowed behind a large, white furred feline body. A humanoid face placed behind a silvery mask came out of the light as gauntleted paws touched the earth, "Nefertimon: Angel of Light!"

Hikari crawled onto the sphinx's back. The large white-feathered wings flapped robustly and lifted the feline off of the ground. Pegasusmon and Nefertimon departed together and chased after Halsemon and Miyako.

"I'll stay down here," Koushiro stated as he looked down at Leormon and the others, "but…Tentomon can go up…and help."

"But Izzy…" Tentomon said as he fidgeted. "Is that really necessary…"

"We'll need all the help we can get up there," Ken said quietly as he looked down at Wormmon.

"I'm ready when you are," The green caterpillar hopped forward.

Ken nodded happily, "Digi-armor Energize!"

"Wormmon armor digivolve to…" A pink light swarmed around Wormmon. The caterpillar lifted to his hindmost legs and changed from a green exoskeletoned bug to a soft, white-furred, plush, button-nosed, black-eyed ursine digimon. Pink, rubbery armor covered the digimon's head complete with heart shaped arrowheads on the end of the sweeping antennae that sprouted from its head. Pink, rubber gloves and boots slid onto its hands and feet. "Puttimon The Heart of Kindness!" The cute Armored digimon looked at Tentomon, "Well, are you ready to go?"

Koushiro looked down at his partner. Tentomon nodded his head toughly and opened his red wing covers.

"Tentomon digivolve to…" The low level buzz turned into triumphant, thundering pulses. A blue, beetle, without a shelled back, hovered in the air with four, huge, veined wings. Everyone's hair flew in all directions and Puttimon had to strain against the wind. The horned face mask revealed nothing of the digimon's face below except for a pair of huge, toothed mandibles. "…Kabuterimon…" The blue bug didn't stop there though as the light once again swept around him. "Kabuterimon digivolve to…." The wings were tucked back and a crimson shell formed over them connecting at a point in the middle where a bluish gem formed. The head of the beetle became smaller as the horn grew into a large T-shaped projection. A white, rib-like armor stretched across the scarab's front as he clenched the fists on its two pairs of arms, "….MegaKabuterimon!"

A jet fired at the back of the huge, red beetle that drove the massive insect off the ground. Puttimon leapt into the air and landed on the grooved horizontal portion of the beetle's 'T' horn. Daisuke looked at the others.

"Veemon, let's do this," Daisuke lifted his D-3.

"Right," The little dragon clenched his fists and smiled. "Veemon digivolve to…" Veemon's chest widened and his chest became more muscular, his entire body became more muscular. His knuckles got knobby and spiked. His snout became more pointed like a komodo dragon's as the horn on his snout extended upward. A tattoo of crossed swords was emblazoned on his chest as two white, leathery wings unfurled from his back. He swished a heavy scaled tail, "…ExVeemon!"

"I'll stay down here with Ken and Koushiro," Daisuke said as he saluted to the dragon. "Give 'em heck."

"I'll try my best," ExVeemon lifted off the ground with a grunt and a few flaps of his white wings.

"Iori, you'll be out man on the ground," Koushiro said as he turned to the little boy.

"Right," Iori nodded his head and his green eyes fell on Armadillomon. Iori brought his golden sided D-3 up. "Digi-armor Energize!"

"Armadillomon armor digivolve to…" Armadillomon lifted up on his hind legs as his body elongated upward and. His front legs turned into arms with drill-fingered hands. His face became more triangular as his snout turned into another drill head. His legs became like that of a crickets and a third pair of limbs formed from his golden armored chest. Armadillomon's ruffled ears turned into spriggy antennae. His checkered shell became hard wing covers for a pair of translucent, vestigial wings. "…Digmon the Drill of Knowledge!"

Volcamon looked down at Leormon. "Leormon, you take the Armadillomon and Hawkmon and go to the Village's loom building. You're the last line of defense…"

"I know that," Leormon snorted as he turned and bounded away, shouting out to the air. "Come on, all you Rookies are with me…"

"You kids who are without your partners come with me, you can 'elp me with t'e mainframe," Volcamon shouted as he turned from them. The small volcano on his back puffed smoke gently as he walked away.

The cabins opened as Armadillomon and Hawkmon ran out into the street and followed the lion cub. Volcamon walked forward with the children following him. Volcamon entered the cabin and the children followed.

Koushiro nearly stifled a guffaw as he looked at the sparking, hackneyed network of computers hooked up to something from a seventies spy movie. Volcamon turned and eyed the teen with annoyance.

"Sorry, I was expecting something…" Koushiro didn't finish his sentence and coughed and then looked up at Volcamon, "its just I've worked with Andromon…and I kind of expected…"

"Heh, yah, I know Andromon," Volcamon said with a snort, "T'inks everyt'ing 'as to be new and fast…tell ya what, t'ese 'ere computers can out endure anything that ponce puts together. They may be bulky an' inefficient but they get the job done and take a blast ten times better than any hyperlinked, fiber optic, micro-wired gobbledygook Andromon could hope to snarl together in a week."

"If I do say so, I think I hear a bit of envy," Koushiro stated with a smile.

"Well, you'd be wrong!" Volcamon retorted with an angry growl. The volcano on the digimon's back flared as he turned and picked up a pair of old headphones. "Now, you'll be taking the communications with the digi-destined."

"And Miyako thought I'd stir up trouble?" Daisuke sing-songingly whispered into Ken's ear as Koushiro was directed to his seat and put on the headphones.

"You two," Volcamon eyed Daisuke and then Ken. His eyes fell on Ken, "You'll direct things in the air," Volcamon looked at Daisuke, "And you'll keep us in contact with the beach…"

Ken and Daisuke promptly sat down and put on a pair of headphones. Koushiro looked up at the others. He could hear them through the headphones. It was starting.

888

Halsemon whisked through the air. The wind swirled around his body as he rose. Miyako clenched her fingers tightly into his red, feathery fur. The dragons above them were already scrambling. The death of their companion had scared them obviously, because there were whirling about.

"We'll just drive them away from the island ok?" Miyako weakly suggested. "It shouldn't be difficult to herd them off. There are only four of them…"

"If you say so," Halsemon said, unsure. He flew through the middle of the group of green scaled, red winged dragons and came around. "Eagle Eye!"

Pairs of red arrow beams fired against the back of the dragons. The tattered wings of the dragons fluttered as the dragons twisted around. The skull helmeted heads of the dragons glared upward. Their fanged mouths opened and fireballs vaulted upward in retaliation. Halsemon tilted sharply left and right as the flames seared the air. A puff of fire flashed in front of Miyako; fortunately her pilot's goggles were lowered.

"Ok…moderately difficult, should've said moderately difficult," Miyako yelped as the dragons turned their full attention on the hawkish gryphon between Miyako's knees.

"God Tornado!" The dragons' mouths opened again. Fireballs roared forward.

"Hold on Miyako! This may be bumpy," growled Halsemon as he swung completely on his side and sliced between two of the flaming blasts.

The gryphon slipped between two of the dragons. The winged snakes twisted around and started opening fire on him. Fireballs burned all around Miyako; their roaring passage made Miyako tense.

"Equus Beam!" Emerald beams sliced past Halsemon from in front.

"Cat's Eye Beam!" pink streaks zipped past Miyako's head. She gulped as she saw Pegasusmon and Nefertimon charged past her. Miyako turned her head around as she watched the Airdramon separate and break off.

Halsemon leveled off and hovered in the air breathing deeply as he looked upward. "Miyako, are you ok?"

"I'm fine…" Miyako had her hand on her chest, she was breathing just as deeply as her partner. "We better go help Hikari and Takeru…"

Halsemon leaned sharply and accelerated ripping through the air as he rushed towards the Airdramon. The four dragons were twisting and twirling in the air as the two smaller Armored digimon slipped in and out of their ranks firing pink and green beams into the dragons' chests and tails. Halsemon was nearly there when a titanic beetle erupted out of the forest. It had a crimson exoskeleton. Miyako blinked as she saw the diminutive Puttimon leapt from the beetle. The small bearish fairy flew through the air and a stream of rose energy struck out at dragon's snout. The dragons snarled and turned their heads.

"Be careful!" Miyako shouted loudly. "Don't kill them!"

The huge beetle rose up and the Airdramon dropped away from the huge bug.

"MegaKabuterimon should be able to round them up," Halsemon said quietly.

"But what about their friends?" ExVeemon was flying under them and pointing behind them.

Miyako turned around. She gasped as she saw them, thousands of dragons. They filled the air in huge black clouds.

"I count nearly two thousand of them," A voice chirped from Miyako's D-3.

Miyako lifted the digivice and lifted it to her lips, "Is that you, Izzy?"

"Yes, I'm at the command control," Izzy's voice replied. "We see the contacts on the radar screen, there are thousands…like I said maybe two thousand, probably more. This is likely the first wave…"

"First wave!" Miyako shouted into the digivice.

"Don't scream…" Izzy hissed. "I have headphones on…"

"I'm sorry…" Miyako sighed quietly.

"How are we supposed to deal with over two thousand Airdramon?" grumbled Takeru's voice. "We're having a handful with four…"

"MegaKabuterimon can handle more than one at a time," Izzy's voice said distractedly, "And who said all two thousand of them were Airdramon…there are also Maildramon in the mix, but it's hard to discern, thanks to some…equipment inadequacies," Izzy nearly growled the last bit out. "As it is you aren't alone…"

Miyako was about to respond when four missiles whistled past her head. The sound of rockets roared over her head. They looked like something from Jurassic Park. Long pointed beaks and a long, pointed crest made up its head. The body was covered by a metallic chassis. The wings were rigid and metal with the sleek shaping of a jet. There were four of them.

Miyako took her focus off the large, jet propelled flying reptiles and to the four missiles that had whizzed over her head. Each missile exploded expertly into an Airdramon. The dragons screeched as their bodies were torn apart by the explosions. Miyako trembled as she watched the digimon swept around and the jets exploded open and the digimon shot past the digi-destined. Their departure was soon accompanied by a loud boom.

"What the…who do they…?" Miyako sat back agog. Her mouth was wide open.

"Pteramon," Nefertimon called as she flew forward. "Jet propelled digimon considered to be the best one on one, aerial dogfighters in the Digital World. They're ruthless when it comes to pursuing and destroying their targets."

"In other words they shoot to kill…" Hikari looked a little worried.

"We can't let that happen…" Miyako snapped. "We can't just let them…"

"Miyako, don't be insane," Daisuke's voice shouted through the digi-destineds' digivices. "This isn't like before! This isn't like the way it was with Ken or even with Arukenimon. It's just like it was when we fought Daemon and his Daemon Corps. These digimon aren't going to stop! They'll never ever stop, until we're all dead! We aren't going to scare them off! We're up against a wall!"

"You're not up here!" Miyako shouted back, "You didn't just see four huge Airdramon incinerated mercilessly, without regrets!"

"Maybe you shouldn't be either…" Ken's voice said smoothly, without anger, without malice. "If you can't make the decision, you will get hurt…"

Miyako sat quietly, glaring in the distance. Explosions were puffing up in the oncoming clouds of dragons.

"Guys…you have incoming…" Izzy's voice filled the airwaves.

The children looked up. Ten dragons were closing on them. Five were the green skinned Airdramon and five were the steel covered Maildramon. The Maildramon, up close looked like horses draped in armor with long necks and thick sturdy legs. The head was a customary knights' helmet complete with face grill. Huge, golden wings flapped as the Maildramon closed in behind the swifter, sleeker Airdramon.

Suddenly the air was filled with rolling clouds of flame. The destined digimon scattered as the flames roared towards them. The Airdramon rolled in the air and split up chasing the destined digimon. Halsemon ducked and weaved through the air as an Airdramon belched fireballs at him and Miyako. Miyako gulped as the quickly changing undulations and twirls made her stomach twist in knots. Miyako could only get quick glimpses of the others. Puttimon and ExVeemon were flitting around as the Airdramon fired on them. The same could be said Nefertimon and Pegasusmon; the two digimon swirled and twisted through the air, their passengers clinging with death's grip onto the digimon.

All the while Miyako noticed that MegaKabuterimon was rumbling forward, through the cacophony of the battle's vignette. He was like some large, red battleship in a fleet of motor boats. The Maildramon hadn't made a move yet, seemingly unwilling to enter the fast paced twisting and turning dogfight. Miyako winced as MegaKabuterimon entered the cloud Maildramon. His horn pulsed and strips of lightning danced on the horn of the behemoth beetle.

"Horn Buster!" A rod of twisting, orange lightning roared forward, striking the metal covered dragons.

The golden wings of the Maildramon curled downward as lightning danced across their collective bodies, and then with a loud roar and a shrug they flung off the reigns of the lightning strike.

Miyako blinked as the Maildramon looked at one another and as one chorused, "Lightning Spear!"

Five blasts of lightning roared into MegaKabuterimon head-on. The giant beetle shuddered and turned his head away from the lightning strikes. The bolts of electrical energy scorched MegaKabuterimon's red shell, hissing angrily as smoke wafted off the shell. Miyako nearly shouted out but she was cut off by a sharp left leaning jerk by Halsemon and a wave of fire the burned through the air a foot in front of her and before she knew it she was being thrust face first back into her small squabble with the Airdramon tailing them.

888

Koushiro was scrambling left, right and center. He was hopping from bench to bench. Ken was hovering over the screen that showed explosions pulsed across the screen as figures zipped back and forth over the monitor. Daisuke was sighing as he looked at his beach scene.

"This is a disaster," Koushiro hissed as he looked up at the others.

"Thunderbirmon has really gotten his guys ready," Ken said quietly. "He's barking them about and for being outnumbered ten or twenty to one…they are actually on the edge of containing the Airdramon forces…"

"Yeah but what about the Maildramon?" Koushiro looked up half crazed.

"Well, bit of a problem on that end…" Ken sighed as he looked up, "It seems the Maildramon are highly resistant. It's taking three Pteramon to knock one Maildramon out of the air. The missiles are bouncing off of them like popcorn off a turtle."

"Daisuke," Koushiro didn't look up from his screen. "How's the beach defense coming?"

"I…uh…well…just a second," Daisuke floundered spinning around and getting wrapped up in his own cords and nearly choking himself.

"Never mind," Koushiro picked up one of the microphones in front of him, "Jyou! Tell me that the shore defense isn't as big of a disaster as the air defenses…."

"Hey!" Daisuke shouted hurt.

"Well…" Jyou said in his half-hearted, contemplative tone. One could almost imagine him adjusting his glasses as he spoke, "it could be better…"

"Jyou, having smallpox would be better…" Koushiro sighed as he got up from his bench and grabbed the microphone and walked across the aisle to the sonar display. Koushiro bowed his head and let it hang and he sighed deeply, "According to this the Ebidramon are halfway up the coral reef, at this rate they'll be on top of you…why isn't Zudomon out there?"

"They won't let us go out…" Jyou replied in aggravation.

"Go out anyways!" Koushiro yelped.

"Oh yeah, like I want to make a big, shark thing angry," Jyou said sardonically.

"Actually Tylomon is a reptile, sharks are fish," Koushiro stated in a whisper.

"Either way he has way bigger teeth than I do," Jyou returned loudly.

"Fine…" Koushiro grunted as he got up and put the microphone back.

"Hey, I got a thingy…" Daisuke said as he looked up.

Ken looked up and turned to Daisuke, "A thingy?"

"Report," Daisuke snapped his fingers. "Orcamon, says that the Ebidramon are past a coral de-demar-demar…."

"Demarcation?" Koushiro suggested as he typed something into the ancient Cassinio computer.

"Yeah, called reef 45, evidently they have 100 defense lines between the open ocean and the shore," Daisuke parroted nodding his head as his eyes looked off upwards. "Right…oh and that they are really ready for them at reef forty five…"

"Ok," Koushiro sighed as he looked back at the monitors displaying outputs from the sensor grid. His eyes fell on a set of monitors showing a large red blotch far out to sea, "Ok, wait what's this set up…these are sonar and radar…"

"Ugh, t'ey're seismographs…" Volcamon said from his place under the table. He was doing something with the wiring. He'd been silently working this whole time and the digi-destined had nearly forgotten him.

"For crying out loud…" Koushiro grumbled as he shook his head, "why are we wasting RAM for this?"

"Uh, Koushiro…" Daisuke looked up at the cinnamon haired boy. "Orcamon has said that the Gesomon at reef 45 have slowed Ebidramon advance by forty percent…"

Volcamon stood up and wiped his hands, "I 'ave the seismograph for a very important reason…"

"Oh, and that's what?" Koushiro snorted glaring up at metal man with the volcano on his back.

"This!" Volcamon pointed at the red blob on the screen. "Tis a lot of seismic activity right thar."

"According to this there are underground volcanoes there," Koushiro grumbled angrily. "Why are you so worried about seismic activity!?"

"It was over there…about an hour and a half ago," Volcamon slid his index finger from where the blob was northeast. "It's moving towards us and it's accelerating."

"Ok….what are you saying?" Koushiro looked up at Volcamon.

"It's not really what it looks like," Daisuke said without looking up. He whistled as he watched the video feed on his screen. "Man, those Gesomon are just tossing the Ebidramon out of the water."

"Now if only we could get our people into the fray we may have a chance," Koushiro said as he turned around and sat at his place in front of the CB box. "Iori…"

"Yes?" said the boy's rasped voice.

"Are you busy?" Koushiro sighed quietly.

"No, the Airdramon are still too high…" Iori said quietly.

"Good, I need you and Digmon to check out something," Koushiro started to type again. He took out his D-terminal and typed into it. "Go to the coordinates I'm sending you; it's underground. We have some odd seismograph readings…"

"O-ok…" Iori said incredulously. "We'll go…"

"I know it sounds unimportant but it could be very important," Koushiro said as he looked up and over at Ken's radar screen. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Yeah, more Airdramon have broken through…" Ken said unhappily. "The Maildramon are just plugging things up…"

"We need to push forward," Koushiro sighed as he looked at the screen.

888

Jyou looked down at the ocean. The calmness of the surface disguised the conflict below and only rarely, when a fatally injured Ebidramon was tossed carelessly, did the water show any malice. Jyou looked up at Zudomon. The digimon had a gruff expression on his face but Jyou knew that the little Gomamon inside the titanic, turtle-shelled walrus was nearly sick with worry and uneasiness. Gomamon was such a peaceful digimon and for him to be thrust into this kind of condition couldn't be good for him.

Jyou sighed quietly. He knew that even if Gomamon didn't like it, he could still be depended on to join in any fight to save friends or family, especially those that couldn't defend themselves. It had to be a hard life for their digimon, to live for peace and yet have to fight in a war.

Jyou looked up at the sky. The air rumbled. He could see specks of digimon zipping across the blue sky like water striders on a lake. Flashes of lightning sometimes snatched out in all directions or plumes of smoke and fire. It seemed to be so far away, so distant.

"That's…that's…Miyako!" Koushiro's voice cracked up from Jyou's D-3. He quickly snatched it up and looked at it. "She's surrounded! Someone get in there, break up that ring! She's hemmed in!"

Jyou gulped as he looked impotently at the D-3. Koushiro wasn't even talking to him, the boy's shouts were to anyone listening.

"They can't…they're caught up in their own fights," Jyou stood listening to Ken's shouts.

"T'e fighting's too 'igh for anyone on the ground ter reach," Jyou narrowed his eyes at the unfamiliar voice.

"They're closing in, Miyako get out of there!" Koushiro was screaming now. There was a pause, "What do you mean you can't!?" A second pause, "Damn thing, can't even see individuals! They must be within twenty feet now…probably less…" The third pause seemed to last forever.

"Koushiro…?" Ken's voice wafted statically across Jyou's D-3.

"They got her…" Koushiro's voice hissed in horror. Jyou could hear the waver in the boy's voice. "Look, they used so much power they caused a radar blackout of the area…"

"Koushiro you need to sit down," Ken's voice said quietly. "She may still be…"

"Look, it's not that simple, she was hemmed in; they were so close they could've hit her if she was the size of a parakeet," Koushiro's voice rattled angrily, "If I'd had better equipment!"

"Daisuke, help me…" Ken grunted. There was scuffling sounds coming across the D-3. "Sit down!"

"Hey…what's that dot?" Daisuke's voice shouted.

"Miyako! Miyako is that you!?" Koushiro's voice shouted anxiously. Something clattered loudly and then Jyou heard a loud sigh.

888

The other digi-destined were looking the direction of the huge explosion in the sky. When they had heard Koushiro's voice shout over the D-3 their stomachs had twisted. They were too busy trying to keep themselves alive to save Miyako. They'd seen the Airdramon, but the already present aggressors were launching an aggressive campaign to keep them occupied. The shouts from Koushiro and the explosion seemed to make time halt.

Light had filled the sky as the newly arrived Airdramon opened their mouths. Flames had filled the air and though the wind was constantly whistling and howling they heard a scream.

That's when the wind erupted in all directions from the explosion. The Airdramon that had been surrounding Miyako and Halsemon exploded into data. The smoke and light had disappeared and in its stead was a man about six feet tall with brick red hair, and white, lightly furred body with hawk-like legs complete with talons. A visor covered his eyes and two tufted ears propped up from his head.

There was a second scream and Miyako could be seen tumbling through the air waving her arms as she fell. The man looked down and dive-bombed towards the ground his muscular arms pinned against his tone, muscular body. It took several sickening seconds for the man to catch Miyako in a maneuver that would've made Superman feel a little inadequate. He arched towards the girl and grabbed her with a taloned foot. Miyako was shouting angrily upward now at the man who held her by the arm with his foot. The digimon leaned forward and grabbed the girl's other arm and released her with his foot, scooping her up in his arms. He hovered downward, as he did reality seemed to sink back into place as fires flew past the two remaining digi-destineds' heads.

888

"Ooo!" Miyako growled balling up a fist. "You could've been a little faster!"

"I'm sorry, Miyako," Silphymon apologized shamefully as he fell below the forest canopy.

"I can't believe that worked," Miyako gasped as she looked up at Silphymon's face. The digimon's human face was frowning slightly. The cheek muscles were tense and his small fangs were held tightly against his lower lips.

"You should never have allowed me to do that," Silphymon said in annoyance. "It was very dangerous! What if the Maildramon had impeded my rescue of you?"

"They didn't!" Miyako nearly giggled at the mother-hen attitude the cyborg Ultimate was having.

"Miyako! Miyako, is that you?" Koushiro's voice was sharp and harassed.

"Yes," Miyako said confidently. "I'm fine…Silphymon…dealt with the Airdramon…"

A resigned sigh came over the D-3. Miyako smiled happily and looked up at Silphymon. "You didn't need to grab me with your foot either…"

"It was easier than trying to grab you by hand," Silphymon retorted as if mortally wounded.

"Even so…" Miyako chastised as Silphymon touched down on the street in the middle of Primary Village.

"Miyako!" Koushiro, Ken and Daisuke were running towards them.

"Izzy," Miyako slipped out of Silphymon's arms and touched the ground with her feet.

"You're safe…" Koushiro held the girl's hands with his.

"How did you manage getting Halsemon to digivolve to Silphymon?" Daisuke asked as he looked up at the Ultimate digimon.

"Well, let's say…Halsemon didn't…" Miyako said coyly.

"I de-digivolved to Hawkmon and then incredibly quickly re-digivolved to Aquilamon and Silphymon," said the human digimon quickly with a frustrated lilt to his voice, "It was an overtly dangerous tactic that I will never allow again…"

"It worked though!" Miyako yelped loudly.

"You scared the heck out of us," Ken said as he put his hands in his pants' pockets.

"Silphymon, you have to get back up there," Miyako turned to the man. "You should be able to break through the Maildramon."

Silphymon nodded and leapt into the air smashing through the forest canopy. Miyako looked at the others.

"Let's get back to the command center, before Volcamon short circuits everything," Koushiro said as he turned around.

"Hey where's Iori?" Miyako asked as she followed the boys.

"Doing some…undercover work," was all Daisuke replied with.

888

It had taken twelve minutes but they were there, or relatively close. Iori had decided that it wouldn't be prudent to drive through a moving, unstable, seismically active area of earth, especially seven miles down. Digmon was already complaining about the geothermal heat warming the rock.

Digmon took a deep breath as he lifted his drills. "One more push should put us in position right in front of it…"

"Ok," Iori nodded as he looked over the sandy shelled beetle's shoulder.

"Hold on tight…this rock feels a little thin," Digmon warned as his drill hands whirred back to life.

The rock snapped angrily and the ground under Digmon's feet fell out from under him. Iori felt the small covers that made up the back shell of Digmon split. A soft 'whapping' noise lifted from the insects back. Digmon's fall slowed to a wobbly parachuter's-like descent. They had fallen into a huge chamber. Iori coughed as a stinging acidic scent burned his nose. Digmon wandered, in air, toward a group of huge stony columns. The digimon clasped the column with his two left hands and then with his right foot.

"Well…this is," Digmon didn't finish his sentence. The chamber spoke for itself. Spires of rock reached for the roof, noxious steam rose from the floor. Red light brewed malevolently from the floor as well.

"It must be a magma chamber…" Iori whispered as he looked around covering his nose and mouth with the bottom half of his shirt. "Format Island must have been volcanic for a while…" Iori reached into his pocket and carefully picked up his D-3. "Koushiro, can you hear me?"

"You're br….g ..! Co.. .g….n?" Koushiro's voice hacked through the hissing, snapping static.

"I said 'CAN YOU HEAR ME?'!" Iori shouted taking his shirt away from his mouth. He coughed as he was assailed by the unpleasant atmosphere.

"T.. e…th .. in…at..g t.e …dio; … ha… …o …ar y…" Iori wasn't even sure who was on the other side now. The garbled attempt clipped and coughed between bursts of angry static.

Iori sighed quietly as he covered his mouth again, "Looks like we're not going to get through…I wonder how far off that disturbance is…"

"Three hundred yards…and closing," Digmon said as he drew his head back from the rock column. His antenna was twitching. "There is a main pulsing and then lots of smaller ones."

"How'd you?" Iori looked at the insect digimon.

"I live for the underground," Digmon said with a green twinkle in his eyes, "My antennae are primed for looking for earth disruptions. It should be here…right about…."

The eastern wall of the chamber glowed bright red and then melted into a pulsing, red river of goo. The floor of the magma chamber crackled slightly as the molten rock spread over its surface. Iori looked into the darkness of the tunnel beyond the hole melted into the cavern.

A pair of red eyes glowed near the ceiling of the hole. A small head emerged. The face attached to the small, triangular skull was covered by a heavy metallic helmet covered in crystalline spikes; even what Iori would've called hair looked like spiked crystals. A long neck curled out of the shadows. The neck had earthen scales matted against glowing orange flesh. A thick, elephantine foot stepped forward. The magma chamber's floor wheezed as the stubby toed foot touch the ground. Cracks glowed into existence as the rest of the beast moved onto the magma chamber's floor. The entire beast was covered in massive earthen plates. Cracks in the digimon's armor, much like that of the floor of the chamber, glowed with a violent orange-red glow. Running parallel on both sides of the digimon's spine were rows of small hissing volcanic spikes. Crimson liquid popped and crackled out of the spikes as smoke pushed upward.

"Is that thing a digimon?" Iori whispered quietly as he watched the glowing creature slowly move forward.

"It is," Digmon said quietly. "He is known as Volcdramon. He lives under the crust of the Digital World and rarely surfaces. He's usually peaceful but when pressed he can use the magma that courses through his body as a weapon to create a Volcanic Fount or using it to create noxious gasses to knock out or kill his enemies…"

Volcdramon turned its head and snorted in annoyance, "Come, the earth will hold us here…"

Volcdramon continued forward, the ground hissing and cracking under the beast's weight. Behind him came more digimon, these Iori knew personally. Bipedal dragons walked forward. Their bodies were thin and muscular. Their helmeted heads looked forward and their gauntleted hand clenched. Armor covered their chests and upper legs. It was the familiar flame armor of the once one and only Flamedramon. Iori suppressed a gasp as he watched an army of Flamedramon march behind Volcdramon. Their skin was gray but the armor had the same red and orange flame decoration.

Volcdramon stopped and turned to his troops. The Flamedramon stopped their forward march and came to attention with a shout. The echo caused the walls of the chamber to shudder slightly and a rock or two fell crashing to the floor of the chamber with a crackle.

"We are dragons!" Volcdramon announced loudly causing dust to fall from the ceiling. "We serve our gods and will bring peace and order to this world! Unfortunately that means one thing! Does anyone know what that means!?"

"No, sir! Please tell us, sir!" shouted the Flamedramon in unison in sharp clipped tones. The chamber thrummed again causing more rocks to fall free clattering to the floor below.

"It means that we will have to fight the plague that exists now," Volcdramon said with a low rumble. "We will have to face the contaminated, the ill, fight for our lives and die for our gods. We will purify the Digital World with fire. It will become our temple and we shall rise to our glory…we will make the Human World our Paradise! Our purification will start with the island above our heads…we will take what is ours and from there…this island shall be purged! The flames will bring healing to this undignified scar!" Volcdramon turned his head around and opened his mouth. The flesh under his earthen plate armor pulsed bright red. "Volcanic Fount!"

A torrent of lava and flame vomited forward, spraying at an angle against the western wall. The magma chamber shuddered again as a hole was melted into the wall. Volcdramon didn't stop. The spray of lava coursed against the wall like a power sprayer against a dirty car. The hole turned into a divot and then into a red glowing tunnel. Volcdramon slowly pushed forward and upward. The Flamedramon marched forward, shaking the chamber with their heavy, flame-booted steps. The floor of the magma chamber glowed as magma seeped up into puddles of lava. Portions of the floor were now nothing more than floating rafts of rock hovering unsteadily on the Digital World's magma convection currents.

"We have to warn the others," Digmon said, sanguinely watching the last of the Flamedramon disappear into the forming tunnel.

"Then we have to get to them before Volcdramon," Iori said as he looked at the D-3.

"I can try," Digmon said with a nod.

Digmon leapt upward, catching a nearby column of rock. Digmon then bounded to yet another column, each time ascending a little higher on the rock column. Digmon narrowed his eyes as he measured the next leap. The rock column was a good hundred feet away. The wing covers on Digmon's back split open and the beetle's wings exposed themselves.

"Are you sure about this?" Iori said with a minute measure of worry. "We could go over to that patch of rock on the floor."

"It looks stable but it's actually as soft as mud," Digmon said quietly, "Those dragons turned the floor into half baked peanut brittle. Hold on tight…" Digmon rocked back and forth. "One for the money…two for the show…three to get ready and four to…"

Digmon leapt. Iori closed his eyes as he felt the hot air swirl through his straight, salt and pepper brown hair. The soft 'whap-whap-whap' of Digmon's wings were soothing to the ear. The forward motion jarred to a stop as Digmon's drill claws skidded across the rock column's mineral surface. Iori's fingers dug into the creases between Digmon's armored shell and the back of his neck. Digmon swung around the column as he claws dragged along the hard surface. The insect's cricket like legs tensed and he leapt again this time rushing upward toward a hole in the ceiling of the chamber. His larger upper arms clawed into the wall of the ceiling tunnel. His lower arms grabbed for hand holds in the rock while his legs worked to curl his feet up to grasp footholds.

"Digmon…" Iori gulped as he looked down at the rolling floor below, spurts of lava were being ejected upward. "I know I usually don't question your judgment on these sorts of things…"

"Don't worry…" Digmon said as he hauled himself into the tunnel.

His long toes curled into the rocky ridges of the tunnel. Slowly he lifted his drilling claws of his right hand and slammed them into the wall of the tunnel. The rock flew from drill. Digmon grunted as he pulled himself upward a little more and then, holding his place with his lower, smaller hands, he drilled into the wall of the tunnel with his nose and upper drill-carrying hands. Before long a second tunnel was formed and Digmon scrambled into the tunnel and immediately started to incline the tunnel upward.

"Digmon, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have doubted you," Iori said as he put his head against the insect's back.

"Ah, don't worry 'bout it, Iori," Digmon chuckled as his drills whirred into the stone ahead of him. "It's not often I get to show off my gymnastic skills."

888

With Silphymon's help it was only short work before the immediate group of aerial stragglers was done away with. Hikari hated to do it but the Airdramon and Maildramon were not retreating nor did they show any willingness to negotiate. It was the only way to keep them from hurting the islanders below and their friends. It wasn't over though. She saw them, hundreds of dragons far offshore.

Flames tore across the sky. There were other smaller spots diving between the dragons. She knew they'd be joining those spots. MegaKabuterimon and Silphymon were already looking in the distance.

"I think this time we should take up a formation. It'll be a false V formation" Takeru shouted. Hikari nearly jumped. The blonde haired boy had been so quiet. "Silphymon you lead, ExVeemon, Puttimon take up primary wing positions…Hikari…"

"Yes!" She looked up suddenly. He was taking to ordering things so quickly. Usually he let Ken, Daisuke or even Iori make and execute the plans. It was odd to hear him call out orders.

"You'll take up a position behind ExVeemon," Takeru smiled as he sat on Pegasusmon's back, holding the winged horse's armor tightly. "I'll come in behind Puttimon. MegaKabuterimon will fly directly behind Silphymon between ExVeemon and Puttimon. MegaKabuterimon will be our point of reference, maintain a twenty meter radius around him."

"Right!" The four partner-absent digimon shouted and almost instantly took up their positions.

Nefertimon glided seamlessly slightly to the left of ExVeemon. Hikari looked up. Pegasusmon hovered behind Puttimon.

Takeru looked up and flung his arm forward. "Let's get out there!"

Hikari smiled almost giddily as she looked over at Takeru. She couldn't quite get over how much Takeru and Daisuke were the same. Takeru was looking sternly forward. It was this that was probably the only true difference between the two. Daisuke always had at least a slight twitch of fun in his eyes when entering a fight, not that the boy necessarily liked to fight but it seemed that he got a thrill out of the excitement and adventure. Takeru on the other hand was always purely business when it came to these sorts of things. It was this difference that was probably the cause of the consensus of all the arguments between the two, well when it wasn't about slight jealousy between the two.

Hikari looked forward. It was most likely because of Takeru's experiences that Daisuke's sometimes flippant way of handling things got on Takeru's nerves. Daisuke was always willing to take things with a smile or a joke. He took a punch and got right back up for another, almost taunting his enemies into striking out. Takeru calculated his moves and struck where necessary.

Hikari blinked as she felt Nefertimon shift under her. She looked forward. Airdramon were flying towards them. Four had broken away from a pursuing squadron of Pteramon and now the winged serpents were rushing towards them with their mouths gaping open.

"Break! Remember, twenty meters!" shouted Takeru as he and Pegasusmon bucked out of the way of the oncoming fireballs.

Hikari had already lost sight of the nimble and small Silphymon and Puttimon was always nothing more than a pink blink of the eye. She caught several short, jarring images of Pegasusmon as she and Nefertimon weaved in and out of increasingly dense field of combatants. Missiles were whistling past her and Nefertimon. Fireballs roared past her ears. On a number of occasions spears of lightning sliced under Nefertimon's wings and Hikari had felt heat on her leg as well as the feeling of static cling on her arms.

She saw several Maildramon charging MegaKabuterimon. The huge scarab was the only nearly static thing in the sky. His great bulky made him something akin to a dirigible in the middle of a spitfire dogfight. His massive red horn fired bolts of orange lightning into the fray. Hikari's view was obscured by the gray, metallic wings of a squadron of Pteramon that cut through the air in front of her. An aerial flotilla of Maildramon was closing in on MegaKabuterimon, evidently trying to deter him from opening fire.

Pink energy bolts were bouncing off the lead Maildramon. Puttimon was blazing forward a pink aura surrounding the ursine pixie as he charged forward. The bolts lanced out and flooded over the metal covered dragon's chest. An emerald beam joined Puttimon's. Hikari looked up and saw Pegasusmon galloping forward wings held out firmly as energy fired from his forehead.

Red dots fired from the Pteramon. Missiles screamed loudly curling toward the metallic dragons. The grilled heads of the dragons turned and then tilted their golden wings. The dragons turned as the missiles whistled under their feet and then the Maildramon opened fire. Spears of lightning sliced through the Pteramons' wings sending their dissolving bodies tumbling towards the ocean below.

Hikari gulped as the Maildramon turned toward MegaKabuterimon. The huge scarab scrambled to turn. The Maildramon fired and bolts of lightning exploded across MegaKabuterimon's head and shell. The beetle roared in pain as the lightning broke across his face. His heavy shell was already scarred and scorched by lightning bolts. The beetle snarled and charged forward, slamming his horn into the closest Maildramon. The dragon's armored chest collapsed inward as the beetle gored it. MegaKabuterimon thrust his head upward tossing the dragon over his shoulder.

Hikari gasped. She'd seen MegaKabuterimon fight before, but never in such a ruthless fashion. The beetle grabbed another couple of dragons with his clawed hands and drove them together. The remaining Maildramon were scattering. It was then that ExVeemon and Silphymon appeared out of the twisting, swirling mass of Pteramon, Airdramon and other accumulated aerial combatants. ExVeemon slammed two of the Maildramon with his V Laser. The dragons staggered backward from the pelting but didn't fall apart like the ones that MegaKabuterimon struck down did. Silphymon had summoned up a pair of energy shurikens and sent them spinning into a cluster of regrouping Maildramon. The heavily armored dragons slid into seven or eight pieces before exploding into dust. ExVeemon dove down and slammed his knobbed fist into one of the remaining armored dragons and kicked it towards the swarming sea below.

Hikari was jarred to the left as Nefertimon turned from the scene. Four green scaled Airdramon were diving towards her. Suddenly four heavy stones exploded into the dragons. The beasts howled and reeled backward. As they did so, rubies tore into their exposed underbellies, eviscerating them.

"Hikari," Nefertimon shouted over the roar of the battle. "Are you ok?"

"I don't know…." Hikari admitted as she looked forward and saw, for the first time a large blue bird.

Its wings' primary feathers were jagged like lightning bolts and blue armor covered its body. Its face was like Azulongmon's with a blue mask and lightning bolts and a lightning bolt horn. An explosion of electricity fired from the horn and slashed through five Airdramon deleting them. The bird then turned and opened fire on another group of Airdramon.

"Thunderbirmon," Nefertimon answered Hikari's unasked question.

"Is this right? Killing them I mean?" Hikari returned loudly. "Miyako might be right…"

"I'm not sure…" Nefertimon said. "All I know is that the dragons won't back down and are being every bit as vicious…"

The sphinx tilted her white wings and swung around, falling in line behind four Airdramon. The green scaled dragons were pursuing a single Pteramon. The jet powered cyborg reptile had smoke pouring off its wings a distinct gash had been torn into one of the airfoils and an engine damaged. The Pteramon was retreating, or trying to.

The dragons would have none of it. They promptly opened fire. The Pteramon tried as much as it could to weave back and forth between the flaming pulses flying from the dragons' mouths. There were too many to avoid. The Pteramon was caught by one of the fireballs and spun out of control. The dragons still weren't done though and dove after the tail spinning Pteramon. There was a second volley of fireballs followed by a large explosion.

Nefertimon growled under her breath, "Scum, he was injured….and retreating…"

Two beams of pink light lanced the closest Airdramon. It snarled as the pink lasers burned one of its tattered, red wings. Rubies tore into its back as it tried to fly with one injured wing. The dragon deleted and Hikari put her hands up as Nefertimon flew through the dissolving digital corpse and opened fire on the other three dragons with her Cat's Eye Beam.

Hikari was trembling slightly. The viciousness of this was well beyond all her experiences. She'd only seen similar carnage on television and it was always some far away place like Iraq or Yugoslavia or Botswana. She shuddered as another Airdramon was cut to ribbons by Nefertimon's attacks. She clutched her chest slightly and closed her eyes.

"Can there be any Light in this dark place?" she whispered quietly to herself.

"Mayday! Mayday!" Hikari opened her eyes as she heard Koushiro's voice coming over her D-3. "We are under attack…ground forces have…I guess the word's erupted, into Primary Village. We are outnumbered and need assistance. I repeat Primary Village is under direct attack by ground forces…we need immediate assistance."

888

Daisuke was glued to the windows of the Lincoln log cabin. "Aww, dude is nothing sacred!"

"Using Flamedramon in the invasion that's pretty…" Miyako was next to him. She looked at Daisuke, "…it's not cool…"

"We're in trouble," Koushiro was pleading into the microphones in front of him. "Any help…anyone…?"

"Don't worry," Volcamon snorted as he walked to the door of the cabin. "I'll take care of t'ese wee lads."

In actuality the Flamedramon were being assailed from all sides; Lynxmon and Apemon had pounced on the flame armored dragons almost as soon as the lava had subsided and they had started marching out of the hole in the ground. Sagittarimon was firing arrows into the fray.

Dinohumon sliced through a group of gray fleshed dragons with one of his large machetes. Hyougamon smashed an icy club into the skull of one of the fire dragons. The flame helmet shattered and its pieces fell to the ground revealing a head much like ExVeemon's save for it being thinner. The dragon shook its head and drove a flaming fist into Hyougamon's muscled chest. The ogre staggered backward as the dragon slammed an armored foot into his stomach. Hyougamon tensed a sinewy arm and punched a gnarled, lumpy fist forward. A blast of ice fell over the helmetless dragon. Ice crystals grew around the dragon's lithe form. The ice climbed around the Flamedramon's stomach and chest and around its neck. Finally the icy crystals twisted over the dragon's head freezing it in mid-snarl.

Miyako and Daisuke watched in fascination as Hyougamon turned to another group of the swarming dragons. Apemon was swiping at the dragons with a large club made of bone. Lynxmon drove several of the dragons back with his long curved claws. Pandamon and Icemon were soon on the scene. The panda punched downward, staggering the invading dragons. Icemon pelted the hot headed dragons with huge stones of ice. Sagittarimon grabbed two of the Flamedramon by the scruff of their knobby necks and slammed them together before tossing them aside. The armored centaur lifted his bow and fired arrows at a group of oncoming dragons, stabbing them in the hearts.

Miyako and Daisuke's attention were instantly snatched as the Flamedramon icicle Hyougamon made exploded into several sharp shards of clear water crystals. The dragon roared angrily and leapt on Hyougamon. The blue ogre had his back to the helmetless dragon and now cursed loudly to himself as he flailed his arms trying to dislodge the dragon from his back. The Flamedramon snarled and clenched a fist, bathing it in flame. Hyougamon howled as the fiery fist crushed into his spine. Hyougamon fell to his knees and instantly other Flamedramon leapt on the fallen warrior like vultures on a fresh carcass.

Miyako closed her eyes as a burst of flame erupted from the mound of flame armored dragons. The flare still burned through her eyelids causing a strange flash of purple and red against the inner flesh of eyelids.

Daisuke put his hand on Miyako's shoulder and bit his lips. Volcamon took a stand and marched forward from in front of the cabin the children were in. He lifted a microphone and the cabin shook. The windowpanes rattled and the Flamedramon fell to their knees, a couple exploded into data, covering their ears with their hands. The defending digimon didn't do much better as they bowed to the pulsing that rumbled through the cabin and the floor.

Daisuke blinked and a broad, dumb smile curled across his face. It took a few stewing moments before he thrust both arms into the air.

"YES!" Daisuke shouted loudly, laughing as he did. "Did you see that!?"

"Daisuke…" Koushiro started.

"He literally blew them away! He's got them on their knees!" Daisuke cheered punching the air.

"Daisuke!" Koushiro implored loudly.

"Look at them…" Daisuke leapt for the window and pressed his nose against the glass. "If they don't run home with their tail between their legs…"

"DAISUKE!" Koushiro shouted. Daisuke spun around. Koushiro was sitting at in front of the seismograph consul.

"What!?" Daisuke returned the yell.

"They aren't alone…" Koushiro stated slowly.

Daisuke turned around very slowly. The earth trembled again and the hole in the ground spewed liquid rock. The street cracked open and a huge beast rose out of the pit that formed in the road. A giraffe-like neck rose out of the hole with a spiky, triangular head. Its back had spines lining either side of its backbone, except they weren't spines but rather some sort of volcanoes. Its skin was mottled with chunks of earth overlaid on what seemed to be glowing, orange liquid. The head turned and two glowing red eyes glared down at him from under a metal mask.

"Big brother's watching us…" gulped Daisuke as he turned back to Koushiro and Ken.

"Circle of Death!" Yellow gas poured from the beast's volcanoes on its back.

Daisuke scrambled backward as a goldenrod fog obscured the window. He heard something clatter and then saw Koushiro leap forward. He was quickly taking off his green, uniform jacket. He looked back at Daisuke.

"Ken, Daisuke, take your jackets, shirts off, we have to seal the door!" Koushiro shouted as he dove for the door and jammed his shirt into the gap between the door and the floor.

Yellow fumes sifted out from the hinged edge of the door and from the latched side of the door. Daisuke quickly yanked his flame decorated coat off and pressed it against the latched edge of the door.

"What is that!?" Miyako yelped as the gas wafted through the air.

"Sulfur dioxide…sulfur gas…methane…a concoction of death, poison and primordial earth's atmosphere!" Koushiro shouted. A spasm of coughing followed the explanation and Koushiro covered his nose and mouth with his nose.

"Miyako," Ken was up and the gray jacket from his school uniform was off, revealing a simple white shirt. "You need to find some tape…I know Volcamon has some around here somewhere, he was using it earlier."

The pink haired girl nodded as Ken pressed his shirt against the door frame. Miyako scramble around looking under tables and benches for the elusive tape. Daisuke, Ken and Koushiro's coughing worsened as more of the yellow steam filtered around the door frame. A flicker of silver caught her eyes. Miyako reached forward and put her hand through a loop. A roll of tape hung off her hand.

She ran quickly to the boys. Their eyes were watering and the smell of rotten eggs and sewer gas was so intense that Miyako nearly gagged as a sting of vomit bubbled in the back of her throat. Ken grabbed the tape and slid the silver wheel up alongside the door frame, leaving a metallic line behind the roll. Ken coughed as he yanked on the tape, tearing the roll free. Ken tossed the tape to Daisuke who caught it and in a single movement rolled a strip of silvery tape over the top of the gap between the top of the door and the doorframe. Daisuke handed the tape to Koushiro who was quick to slice the tape roll over the hinge edge. Koushiro then quickly taped the ends of his jacket, which was pressed against the bottom of the door, to the wall.

"I think…" Koushiro coughed covering his mouth. "That'll hold…."

"What about the digimon outside?" Miyako was standing by the window. A thick yellow haze obscured any view of the outside. "That gas…"

"Iori…" Ken stood up. "He's going to be coming back soon, right into that gas."

"Then we have to warn him or something," Daisuke looked at Ken.

"We tried," Koushiro sighed, "but the ground interferes with our transmitter."

"Well, we have to try," Miyako snapped as she turned around and marched to the line of microphones.

"She's right, we have to try," Daisuke said as he peered out the window.

"Let's just hope he's not already out there," Koushiro said as he walked up behind Miyako.

888

Digmon finished excavating the small chamber under the surface. The insect turned around and looked at Iori. The boy nodded as Digmon reverted to his Rookie form.

"With Volcdramon out there, and all those Flamedramon, we're going to have to put forth everything we have," Iori said as he looked up at the roots dangling casually from the ceiling of the chamber. "We don't know what kind of situation is up there, I think it would be best if we arrived on the scene fully evolved."

Armadillomon nodded and looked up. "It's pretty quiet up there…I hope we're not too late."

"I hope we're not late, too," Iori lifted his D-3. "Koushiro, Daisuke and Ken don't have anyone to protect them up there."

"Then I say it's time we get up there and finish this hootenanny," Armadillomon tensed up and looked at Iori. Iori looked down at Armadillomon and nodded. A light engulfed the armadillo. "Armadillomon digivolve to Ankylomon!"

The spikes on the armor-backed, four-legged digimon scraped against the dirt of the tunnel's ceiling. Two streaks of light, one golden and one lavender, twisted around Ankylomon. The tunnel exploded open as an oval head smashed through the ceiling, the cross on top of the head piercing the ceiling. Iori shielded his eyes from the dirt as the clay titan rose into a haze of yellow. The body was that of a sculpted warrior made of clay. Rounded shoulders and concave arms rolled into bulbous wrists with clawed hands. The hourglass torso accentuated the creature's wide, ceramic chest and a circular skirt with golden inlays on the flanks showed off the digimon's waist. Its legs were concave like the arms the mid-legs curving inward then outward as they extended to footless ankles.

"Protect the others!" Iori shouted.

"Ankylomon, Armor Synthesis digivolve to…Shakkoumon!" The arms lifted and the clawed fingers closed into fists, "The Drilling Guardian of Knowledge and Reliability!" The yellow haze that swarmed around the waist of the titan obscured the rest of the creature's body. Shakkoumon's lower body turned. "Now, this won't do at all…"

A loud vacuuming sound erupted from the top of the titan. The fog turned into torrents of goldenrod as it rose and twisted. Slowly a shadow of Shakkoumon's oval head appeared, complete with the creature's tea saucer ears. Shakkoumon's wings shifted as the ceramic digimon took a deep breath and accelerated the suction.

Iori climbed out of the giant hole in the ground as the air cleared. Wisps of yellow gas lazily hung in the air. Iori looked around himself. Most of the digimon were unconscious on the ground. Even some of the Flamedramon were out cold. Volcamon was on his knees coughing and Pandamon was leaning against one of the cabins untying the red handkerchief around his neck. The only two digimon that were seemingly unaffected by the gas were Shakkoumon and the walking, magma dragon Volcdramon, who was standing in front of Shakkoumon.

"What is this?" Volcdramon snarled. The orange glow under the dragon's earthen scales blazed at it glared at the clay titan with its crimson eyes.

"I believe it's called the cavalry," Shakkoumon replied glaring at the dragon with his yellow eyes.

"Human," Volcamon staggered forward, "get behind t'e radar dish, t'e shield will protect you."

Iori nodded and ran back to the large, shabbily cobbled together radar system. He backed himself against an invisible field that surrounded the dish and peered around the edge.

"You think you can stop the Dramons' power?" Volcdramon chuckled quietly to himself. "The wrath of the dragon gods will fall upon you…the gods have heard of your attempt to thwart them, and you will pay, this entire island will pay…once the precious treasure is taken…"

"Iori, I'm glad to hear you're ok…" Iori jumped slightly, it was Koushiro's voice. "We were worried that you would end up coming up in the middle of that gas attack."

"I'm fine, but everyone else is in trouble," Iori said as he clutched his D-3. "The dragons are going to delete the island when they get what they want! We can't let them get the loom."

"We're trying to help, but all the defending digimon were knocked out by that lava thing out there," This time it was Miyako and she didn't seem all that happy.

"Miyako, give me that back," Koushiro's voice commanded. "We called for help but everyone is busy, no one from the aerial digimon can come, because the Airdramon have gotten reinforcements and Jyou and Zudomon are helping the ocean digimon hold the beach, and the Ebidramon have finally broken into the final reef barrier." There was a sharp pause, "Did you say 'destroy the entire island'!?"

"Yes, they said something about purging the island," Iori replied as he looked up at the back of Shakkoumon. "Can they do it?"

"I…I don't know," Koushiro said startled, "The only digimon we've ever known to be strong enough to do that were Mega digimon…and none of the digimon here are Mega digimon…"

"Volcanic Fount!" Iori cringed as Shakkoumon was back glowed with a red glow.

Flecks of orange liquid splattered across the energy shield surrounding the radar system. Shakkoumon shook, sending lava splattering in several directions. Iori caught a profile of Shakkoumon's face and saw the heavy clay eyelids squint. Iori closed his own eyes as he heard the loud buzz of a pair of twin lasers. Volcdramon roared angrily and snarled as he flung his bulky body forward, stomping his blunt claws against Shakkoumon's chest.

Shakkoumon's ceramic butt clattered backward as he was driven back. Volcdramon opened his fanged maw and released a stream of lava and flames on top of Shakkoumon. Shakkoumon's eyes flashed and Volcdramon retreated, hunks of his rocky plating smoking from scorch marks.

"Oi, stinky!" Volcamon shouted as he charged forward. Volcdramon roared, twisting his neck to look at the much smaller metal man. "Ach, ye think you can just go about lettin' rip your nasty gas…well let me give ye some music to go with your horn! Big Bang Voice!"

The air wobbled as a bass rumbled past Iori's ears. He clasped his hands over his ears as he curled into a ball. When his bones stopped the soft, rhythmic rumbling; Iori looked back. Volcdramon was shaking his head snapping his heavily toothed mouth. Gas streamed out of the dragon's spines as he staggered back and forth. Iori noticed that many of Volcdramon plates were cracked and shattered. Orange fluid seeped up through the cracked earthen scales, flaring as steam rolled off the liquid.

"Loud mouth!" Pandamon snarled as he stomped forward shaking his black and white head. He curled his black paws into fists. "You could've knocked us all out!"

"Ach, ye be t'ankin' me when you're not sheeshkerbarbs!" Volcamon roared back at the panda.

"This is why you will fall to our feet," Volcdramon chuckled. His body shook as his small head was flung back in rolling laughter. "You can't fight together! You bicker amongst yourselves! But the dragons…the dragons will always fight together!"

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Shakkoumon snorted, "there are many amongst us, many of our friends are dragon digimon!"

"They are no longer our brethren," Volcdramon suddenly stopped laughing and turned his head to the clay titan. "They are tainted, diseased. They will be purged!"

"We'll stop you," Iori stood up and walked out from behind the radar dish. He looked up at the giant, seething dragon.

"Ha! You'll stop us!?" laughed Volcdramon loudly. "You who are so small and meek, you who are tiny mice!?"

"Yes, us," Iori looked at the dragon. The bright red eyes narrowed but Iori didn't flinch, "We may be small, might be just small mice in front of your lion, but we have a strength you can't possibly imagine…"

"Don't insult me!" Volcdramon roared yanking his head back, "Volcanic Fount!"

Volcdramon's head snapped forward, his mouth open and the lava pouring forth as if it was being fired out of a fire hose. Shakkoumon's massive body shunted in front of the lava flow. The hot sparks and rocks snapped and crackled past Iori's face and ears.

"Bamboo Punch!" Pandamon charged forward.

The large bear digimon was tall enough to come up to Shakkoumon's shoulder. The bear's fist pumped forward and hundreds of dried, hardened and sharpened bamboo shoots flew from the panda's paws. The bamboo shoots imbedded themselves into the orange cracks in Volcdramon's patchy earthen armor, stabbing into the orange, glowing flesh. Volcdramon looked numbly at the bamboo shoots sticking out of his chest and slowly he started to laugh. It was a rumbling unpleasant sound complete with crackling and popping sounds from the combination of inner magma and outer earthen scales.

"Fool! Do you think this would stop me!?" Volcdramon looked down at the bamboo shoots. The dragon closed its eyes and strained. The bamboo shoots exploded into flame, "Nothing but kindling!"

"Ach, nice move thar ya ponce!" shouted Volcamon loudly. The metal man looked at Pandamon and shook his head.

"You're not helping!" Pandamon shot back loudly.

"Wait," Iori shouted. Pandamon and Volcamon looked at the little boy. He looked up at Shakkoumon. The ceramic digimon inclined his head. "I've got an idea!" Iori walked up to Volcdramon, "You act so strong, but you don't even see your own weakness!"

"Oh, little rodent, you are so naïve," Volcdramon glared down at Iori. "I am a dragon, I have no weakness…"

"Oh, but you do…" Iori smiled, "Your skin is very liquid and that cracked rocky thing you call armor or skin or whatever isn't very durable to penetration but it re-grows fast. However, it wouldn't be very good for you if let's say; explosives penetrated your body…"

"That would never happen!" Volcdramon laughed loudly as he looked down at Iori.

"Shakkoumon…" Iori looked up at the clay soldier, "I'm going to ask you to do something very unpleasant…but it has to be done. Can you do it?"

"If you think it needs to be done, Iori, then I am behind you one hundred percent," Shakkoumon said as he turned and faced Volcdramon.

"Shakkoumon, use your Kachina Bombs…" Iori stated firmly glaring up at Volcdramon. Iori turned and walked back towards Shakkoumon.

"You fool! Don't turn your back on me!" Volcdramon charged forward, stomping his feet on the ground.

"Rock Cracking!" Shakkoumon dove forward. His left fist was closed and spinning like a drill. Shakkoumon drove the fist into Volcdramon's chest. The dragon roared as he yanked himself from the drill. Shakkoumon glided backward and positioned himself in front of Iori. A sun symbol on the front of Shakkoumon's skirt opened up. "Kachina Bombs!"

Spinning, ceramic disks with saw toothed edges fired from the opening in Shakkoumon's skirt and vaulted forward. The disks tore into the open spot on Volcdramon's chest where Shakkoumon had drilled into him. Each of seven disks dove into the red, liquid flesh. Volcdramon looked down at his chest. His chest expanded as the cohesive forces of the magma struggled to hold back the forces within. Iori closed his eyes as magma lost its struggle. A loud bubbly 'fwoomp' followed, accompanied by the splatter and hissing of super hot liquid rock. Iori turned to see a pile of steaming lava slowly oozing onto the street and into the gaping hole behind it. Iori gulped and looked down.

"Are you ok?" Shakkoumon asked.

"I'm fine, just makes you wonder what you're made of when you're faced with something like that," Iori said quietly as he blinkingly looked at the lava oozing and steaming.

"I'm going to go to the loom building," Pandamon announced as he walked around the lava puddles. "The Flamedramon were going there."

Iori nodded and looked up at the cabin beyond the gaping hole Volcdramon had created. Miyako was staring out at him. Iori looked down instantly and rubbed his arms. His fingers ran over his D-3, which was hooked to his pants. He pulled the D-3 up.

"Volcdramon has…been destroyed," Iori said quietly as he took a deep breath.

"Yes, well, stay on guard, this isn't over," Koushiro's voice said with more irritation than anything. "The aerial forces are on their way…"

888

Leormon huddled in the small cabin with the other digimon that came with him. Most of them were Armadillomon and Hawkmon though a few Betamon had snuck in. They were all trembling. They had heard the explosions outside, the roaring and the fighting. Now, all they could hear was running and shouting. A search party was scouring the area. That meant that either both the digi-destined and the other village protectors had fled; or, Leormon didn't want to think about it. He closed his eyes and mustered his strength. It had never been in high concentrations and he knew he was rather wishy-washy and riddled with anxiety most of the time.

He looked back. There was an orb; it glowed with soft lavender light that filtered around a pair of intertwining golden ribbons. Tiny strokes of writing covered the ribbons. It was really beautiful but his reverence was cut off by the sound of voices.

"The other cabins are empty…" One voice announced.

"Where can it be?" snarled a second voice. "They wouldn't have moved the loom would they?"

"They may have, we'll have to extend the search to the entire island….wait?" The first voice hissed loudly. There was a pause interspersed with sniffing noises. "I smell…fear, testosterone, and adrenaline. Sweat laced with hormones…yes there is someone living here…someone terrified, someone…hiding something…" There was a haughty chuckle. "Break down the door!"

Leormon and his crew jumped backward as the door exploded into shards of wooden slivers. Leormon curled his lips upward, exposing his fangs. The Hawkmon stood up on his right and the Armadillomon on his left. The Betamon rose up behind him. Leormon looked up. A shadow filtered the light into the room. It was a lithe form, with a thin waist and a slightly lesser thin chest with armor. A ruffled head glared down at them. The ruffles turned out to be the frill of a flame decorated helmet that exposed itself as the dragon stepped into the shadows.

"Oh look, they left the little children to protect the loom," The light dimmed as the dragon's body blocked its attempt to get in. "I hope the little babysitters don't mind if the grown up take a few things…"

"Don't patronize us!" Leormon growled as he stepped forward. "I am Leormon, protector of this village, Protector of the digi-eggs and the babies…and you are not allowed here!"

"Allowed?" the lithe dragon turned around and looked out of the door, "Listen to this! The pipsqueak says we're not allowed!"

Other dragons like the one in the doorway appeared in the light. Leormon narrowed his eyes.

"That's right, you aren't allowed," growled Leormon as he looked at the others, "Charge!"

"Diamond Shell!" The Armadillomon leapt forward, curling into armored balls and smashed into the first dragon, sending it reeling backward into the dragons behind him.

"Feather Blade!" spinning blades of feathers flew from the hands of the Hawkmon, smashing the dragons out into the street.

"Electroshock!" The Betamon frog hopped over Leormon firing bolts of lightning at the dragons as they struggled to their feet. Their squat green bodies glowed as electricity flashed off the red, fin-like Mohawk on their backs.

"Fire Knuckle!" The dragons roared as flames erupted in all directions.

The Armadillomon jumped forward putting their backs against the flames. Leormon gulped as he watched the dragons strain their clawed gauntlets forward and the flames increased in size. Leormon closed his eyes as the Armadillomons' squeals ripped into his furry ears. The Hawkmon and Betamon rushed the dragons but the flame armored creatures slapped away the birds and stomped down the leaping, frog digimon.

"Take the loom program, let's get off this rock," snorted one of the dragons as the last Hawkmon was given the rotisserie treatment.

The dragons walked towards the door. Leormon gulped as the armored beasts stepped into the doorway.

"St-stay back!" Leormon stuttered as the hairs on his neck and back stickled up. His front legs shook as he looked up at the dragons.

"I think I see a pussytat," one of the dragons chuckled, tilting his head slightly, "let's see how many lives it has…"

"I'm, I'm warning you," Leormon growled with a stutter, backing up and slowly curling his tail under between his hind legs.

"Maybe we'll burn its tail when we're done here," chuckled one of the dragons.

"Why stop at its tail?" hissed another. "I say we scorch it all over…burn it to ash."

Leormon shook under their gaze. Their eyes lifted at the sound of explosions in the distance.

"It's started," murmured the closest dragon.

"What's started?" Leormon shouted glaring up at the dragons in front of him.

"Air raid," replied the dragon quietly, as it turned its head to Leormon. "Before long the Primary Village will come under fire…the eggs, all those eggs burned and scorched, cracked and crushed…The babies will be squished and cooked."

"No…" Leormon's pupils shrunk.

"Yes, all the eggs here will be destroyed and we'll kill the babies that aren't any use to us," The dragon said quietly. "We'll take the loom and make eggs of our own…."

"Not my eggs," Leormon looked up at the dragons. "Not, not my babies…"

"Oh yeah," chuckled the dragon quietly, "crying screaming babies…ripe for …purification."

Another line of explosions, these were a lot closer, rumbled in the air like distant thunder. Leormon could feel his claws slide out of the skin sheathes on his paws. He could hear the blood in his ears swooshing through their vessels. The world pulsed and wobbled back and forth.

"We may even find it fit to eat some," chuckled a second dragon. "They say that babies have the sweetest flesh…"

"NO!" Leormon screamed as he leapt forward. "Leo Claw!"

Leormon scraped his glowing claws against the chest of the closest dragon, pushing the lithe beast backward. The dragon's back crashed on the ground and Leormon snarled slashing his claws against the thin ribbon of flame decorated armor around the dragon's narrow chest. Divots stretched across the dragon's chest. Leormon snarled and growled as he dug his claws into the armor.

"Fire Knuckle!" A hot hammer smashed across Leormon's temple.

He bounced and rolled across the hard, dirt road. Stars fluttered across his vision. He tried to stand but it was like the entire world had rolled out from under him and he fell to the earth again. He could hear explosions pulse loudly getting much closer. His front legs felt like cement and he was sure he could feel his fur dampen. Leormon tilted his head. He saw them, the dragons. Three of them were holding the loom. The fourth one lifted an arm up and sent a stream of flames into the air.

"Give…it…back…" Leormon hissed.

The dragons didn't hear him or weren't listening. They didn't look at him. The earth under his head shook as another group of explosions came to bare near him. Leormon's vision was getting blurry. His eyes lifted when a burst of wind swept over his fur. A huge winged snake was hovering in the air and the three dragons holding the loom leapt up on the snake's back. The fourth dragon hopped onto the snake's snout. Another burst of wind and the snake was gone.

"Stop…come…back…" Leormon clasped the ground with his clawed forepaws and dragged himself forward. "Cowards…"

"Leormon! Leormon!" shouted a voice from behind Leormon. "Are you ok?"

Leormon lifted his head tentatively. A black and white blob floated into view. Leormon licked his lips and his voice rasped, "They got it…"

888

"What are you doing now!?" Koushiro snarled as Volcamon bustled about the computers.

"I told you, things are changin'!" Volcamon snorted as he pulled a group of wires along behind him. "Gotta reroute some stuff."

"What are you doing though!?" Koushiro shouted even more annoyed than before.

"Extending ta shield, ya ijjit!" Volcamon retorted angrily.

Koushiro blinked as he watched Volcamon speedily hook the wires into a small black box. He looked up at the other children. They were at monitors looking at the fight from the multiple points of view Volcamon's camera network allowed.

He wired a cord into the box and then ran outside. The explosions from the aerial forces shook the ground under their feet.

"Guys, I'm thinking we need to start thinking of an exit strategy," Koushiro spoke into the microphones, as he looked down at the floor.

"What!?" Daisuke yelped as he swiveled around. "You mean running away!"

"We can't stay here forever," Koushiro returned. "And as I see it, it's only a matter of time before everything falls apart."

"That's insane!" Daisuke shouted. "We came to help fight the dragons, not run away from them!"

"Jyou, Takeru and Hikari agree with me," Koushiro said standing up. "They are reporting major shattering of defense forces…they are coming here."

Volcamon opened and slammed the door shut behind him as he walked into the cabin. "Damn stupid t'ing…."

"What?" Miyako looked up at the metal man as he steamed past.

"Ach, extending ta shields only weakened ta field barrier," growled the man as he stomped up the computer systems. "Now ta whole thing shertcircuited." Volcamon sat down in front of the sensor display. "We 'aven't long 'fore ta dragons have us blown ta kingdom come!" He turned and looked at the sensor displays. "Has anyone been monit'ring ta sonar?"

"Not since Jyou said that they were fighting the Ebidramon on the beach," Koushiro replied. Koushiro looked over to the other children. "MegaKabuterimon and the others should be here soon."

The others nodded and started to stand up when a horrible, electronic 'whooping' noise filled the air. The children spun around. Volcamon had punched his fist against a large red button.

"What the heck is that?" Miyako shouted as she covered her ears.

"Evacuation siren," Volcamon shouted as he walked back to the sonar display. "We 'ave a big problem."

"What now?" Koushiro grumbled as he pushed past the others and walked over to the screen. He stopped, blinking at the screen. The others walked up behind him and looked at the screen. A big, undulating line was writhing towards the island. Koushiro looked up at Volcamon, "that can't be right. I know that sonar signature…"

"I figerred ya would," Volcamon said as he looked sternly down at the cinnamon haired boy.

"But we killed him, he was destroyed," Koushiro stated confidently. "I saw it happen!"

"Ya, well t'others must've made another," Volcamon said with a grunt.

"It's out twenty miles, that gives us little more than ten minutes, maybe fifteen if we're lucky…before it gets here," Koushiro said as he turned around and looked at the microphones.

"Ten minutes until what gets here?" Miyako asked as she looked at the screen and the twisting, red line.

"Guys, I hate to say it, but we're getting out of here, now," Koushiro spoke into the microphones. "Hikari, Takeru, tell Thunderbirmon that the island needs to be evacuated. Jyou, get on the western side of the island, and prepare for passengers. Metal Seadramon is coming…"

Koushiro looked up at the others. Ken, Miyako and Daisuke looked at him, dumbfounded. He stood up and started to walk towards the door of the cabin.

"Metal Seadramon?" Miyako blinked as she ran after Koushiro.

"One of the Dark Masters," Ken said quietly. "The first one you older kids defeated, right?"

"Yes," Koushiro replied, opening the door. Iori and Shakkoumon were standing outside. "Iori, get ready to leave, we're going!"

"We can't!" Daisuke shouted loudly. The explosions crackled closer. Some of the cabins were already on fire. "We can't run!"

"Metal Seadramon is a Mega digimon," Koushiro sighed between his teeth. "Even if we wanted to we couldn't stop him."

"We out number him though!" shouted Daisuke. The brown haired boy ran up to Koushiro and grabbed his shoulder. "I say we get Paildramon, Angewomon, MagnaAngemon, Silphymon and DinoBeemon, join up with Zudomon and MegaKabuterimon and blast him out of the water!"

"Didn't you listen?" Koushiro growled turning around and grabbing Daisuke by the shoulders. "Metal Seadramon is a Mega digimon. One shot is all he needs to destroy this entire island, just one shot. He doesn't even have to hit our digimon to bring them to their knees. Our only hope is to retreat."

"No! Call Tai or Yamato!" Daisuke retorted glaring up at Koushiro.

"Even if I got a hold of them, by the time they got here, we'd be long dead," Koushiro replied as he turned away from Daisuke. MegaKabuterimon flew over his head and landed. Nefertimon, Puttimon and Pegasusmon were with the giant, red beetle.

"Where are Silphymon and ExVeemon?" Miyako asked, shouting out over the rumbles of the explosions that were erupting in the forest surrounding the village.

Hikari and Takeru jumped down from Pegasusmon and Nefertimon.

"Their defending our backs," Takeru stated as he and Hikari walked up to Koushiro. "Is it really him?"

"Maybe not 'him' but it is a Metal Seadramon," Koushiro nodded, frowning.

"Pandamon!" Volcamon's voice shouted.

Koushiro and the other children turned and saw the black and white bear walking towards them, carrying a small body. It had golden fur and large paws. Its ruddy mane was matted down by a sticky darker red fluid.

"Leormon…" Volcamon ran forward and took the small lion cub from the panda.

"The others were killed," Pandamon stated. "I got there too late, they took the loom."

"Then there's nothing to stop them from deleting the entire island…" Iori whispered as he looked up into the sky.

It was filled with winged snakes and heavily armored dragons. Bolts of lightning and balls of fire flew across the sky exploding into the ground.

"You turned the siren on…" Pandamon said quietly. "It's that bad huh?"

"Yes," Volcamon replied as he looked up at the bear. "The others seem to have already made their move to evacuation zone one."

"Excuse me?" Koushiro raised his hand. "Evacuation zone one?"

"After the island was attacked by the Dark Masters, it was decided that an evacuation plan was needed," Volcamon replied as he hugged Leormon close to his metal chest. "A number of zones are on standby, with flying digimon, mainly squadrons of Kuwagamon or Waspmon, but also areas with Blimpmon for larger digimon. The digimon will fly those digimon out that can't escape under their own power."

"My…my babies…" whispered Leormon quietly.

"Don't worry, they'll be safe," Volcamon hushed the lion cub. "Everyone go, get the bassinets, gather them up, we're taking them with us."

The children nodded and darted in all directions. Pandamon joined them carrying several of the bassinets. Koushiro had MegaKabuterimon drop down to ease loading his back with the baby carriers. Puttimon reverted to Wormmon and then re-digivolved to DinoBeemon to help his insect brethren.

The last cabin was being emptied. The aerial firepower finally started to concentrate on the village itself. Cabins exploded as lightning tore through their wooden walls. Fire torched the logs and flames swarmed from one building to the next.

"Let's get out of here!" shouted Koushiro as he placed the last basinet on MegaKabuterimon's back. Pandamon was tying off knots to hold the bassinets on the large beetle's back.

ExVeemon and Silphymon appeared out of the fray in the sky as the last ditch effort to stall the dragons collapsed. The Pteramon were jetting up into the sky and Thunderbirmon was kettling away as the dragons affirmed their dominance of the sky.

"ExVeemon, you and Silphymon have to punch a hole through the dragons' dominance," Daisuke shouted as sparks twisted around his head. He was riding with Takeru on Pegasusmon; Miyako was with Hikari on Nefertimon. Daisuke pointed his D-3 at ExVeemon, "You better digivolve!"

"ExVeemon armor synthesis digivolve to Paildramon: Thunderous Firestorm of Friendship and Courage!" ExVeemon was covered in green armor. A red mask fell over his head as his wings split into six. Gauntleted arms with long, tethered claws clasped hip cannons. The dragon took off and hovered next to the hawk-legged man, Silphymon, "Come on, let's carve a path for them…"

"Yee haw…I guess," Silphymon said as he flew after Paildramon.

Silphymon and Paildramon flew upwards. The two of them opened fire on the multitude of Airdramon, opening a small gap in the swirling mass of winged snakes. MegaKabuterimon, who was carrying the bulk of the eggs, Volcamon, Pandamon, Leormon and Koushiro rose into the air and threaded the small gap formed in the sky. DinoBeemon followed the red beetle and finally Pegasusmon and Nefertimon followed DinoBeemon.

888

Iori looked up stoically into the sky watching Pegasusmon disappear into the smoky sky. The clay warrior, Shakkoumon, was swiveling his head around slicing red lasers at Airdramon as they tried to refill the gap that the others had used to escape. Finally, he leaned down and picked up Iori and hovered out of the burning remains of the village. The ceramic digimon put Iori on its rounded shoulder. The dragons didn't bother him, probably knowing that they had no real chance of injuring him, though Iori did see the dragons chasing after other retreating digimon.

He saw the dragons harrying hordes of Kuwagamon and Waspmon. Larger groups of dragons committed the bulk of their fire power on the huge, brown dirigibles that hung in the air. Iori winced as he watched two of the zeppelins burst into flame and float back to the earth. The large air sacs, which held up the massive digimon, folded as the gasses in them escaped and the beasts howled as flames rushed over their bodies. The sounds of the screams echoed in Iori's ears as he and Shakkoumon broke out of the forest and he could see the ocean, and Zudomon. The large turtle-shelled walrus was already steaming heartily towards the horizon.

Shakkoumon's footless legs pulsed as they switched from hovering over land to hovering over water. Iori looked up. He could see his friends, and the hordes of evacuating digimon. Some of the Blimpmon had survived and were slowly lumbering through the air after the Kuwagamon. Iori looked back at the island. Most of it was bathed in fire. Smoke rolled off the forest canopies. Iori put his hand on the side of Shakkoumon's face.

"It's horrible that some digimon can do this sort of thing to other digimon," Iori said quietly as he looked at the horizon. The sun was starting to fall beneath the horizon. The ocean was awash of reds and oranges as well as lavenders and pinks.

"That's why we're here, to stop it," Shakkoumon replied. The terra cotta digimon turned its head. "That's why we can't stop fighting, especially…"

There was a loud explosion from the east. Iori spun around and looked back. The island was lopsided in the ocean. The massive mountain in the middle of the island snapped in half and crashed into the ocean below. Iori watched for several minutes as the island sank into the water.

"Can we stop it?" Iori asked quietly after the last pillar of stone disappeared from view. "Can we stop something like that?"

"We have to," Shakkoumon said quietly. "If we don't then everything is lost."

Iori didn't have a rebuttal. It was true. The digi-destined were the last hope of the two worlds. They were the last line of defense, but the image of Leormon flashed into his mind. His mind instantly wondered, on its own, if they would end up like Leormon, defeated, bloody and beaten. He looked up again and saw the evacuation fleet and something filled his heart with hope.

888

After a few hours they finally found an island to rest upon. It was a large island, part of an archipelago. The escaping digimon were slowly unpacking what little they'd brought with them.

The children were standing at the beach. Ken had found a digi-port on the beach. Their digimon had de-evolved for their return to the Human World. They were preparing to leave when Volcamon walked up to them.

"I t'ought I awtta say goodbye to ya all," the metal man looked back at the other digimon that had followed him but kept their distance. The group of digimon mainly constituted those that had assisted in defending Primary Village.

"Thank you," Koushiro said, bowing, "We're sorry about…"

"Donna worry," Volcamon interrupted Koushiro. Volcamon lifted one of his hands, "this place will be our new 'ome. Wit'out ta loom we're notta target of ta dragons. We'll live quietly, sorta under the radar-like. One day, we'll rise again. I just wanted ta say, t'at we wish you ta greatest o' luck in ta future."

"What if the dragons come back?" Iori asked as he looked at Volcamon. "What if they come and hunt you down?"

"Then we'll fight, and die," Volcamon said resolutely. "We aren't gonna back down and become slaves ta t'ose worms. If it comes 'tween dyin' free or livin' in tyranny; I t'ink everyone would rather die…"

Iori looked down at Armadillomon. The sandy backed armadillo looked up at Iori.

"I think I understand that feeling," Iori looked up at Volcamon, "Don't worry, you can always call for us. We'll protect you."

"Will do," chuckled Volcamon quietly. "Well, I best be gettin' back to ta ottars."

"Will Leormon be ok?" Miyako asked as Volcamon turned.

The glow of the volcano on the metal man's back dimmed. Volcamon turned and his eyes looked right into Miyako's eyes, "Yes, Leormon will be perfectly fine… 'e never liked fightin' anyways. Never was a more peaceful, fretful and…courageous being to ever 'ave walked this 'ere world. So yes, 'e'll be fine an' 'appy. Just as 'e should be."

Miyako looked at the others and then down at Hawkmon. The red bird put his feathered hand on her leg as the girl choked up slightly.

"We best go," Ken said as he and Wormmon moved toward the digi-port. "The dragons may try to track us down, and…it's getting late. Our parents are probably looking for us."

"Don't worry, I'll cover for you," Jyou said as he and Gomamon looked at each other. "I'll just say that I lost track of time at the arcade."

Ken nodded as he lifted his D-3. "Digi-port open…"

The light of the digi-port faded as the sun's light faded behind the horizon.

888

"I present to you, the Loom of Format Island, Lord Goddramon," the Flamedramon lowered the lavender orb down onto the shadowed floor.

A golden light bathed the ground. A mighty dragon stooped down over the lavender sphere. The light from its luminous, yellow scales bounced off of the two, kanji-inscribed rings that crisscrossed over the face of the ball. His gray, masked face curled upward as a smile crossed his lips

"It is perfect," The dragon's regal voice rumbled through the huge room. It was part of a castle he'd sown out of the ground. His large, prism-feathered wings spread out to their full extent as a beautiful aurora effect fell from the wings like a gentle rain. "Now only the File Island loom remains…but it can wait…we must find Beelzemon first….he disappeared after our victory against Azulongmon's impotent Devas."

"Of course your worship," the Flamedramon laid its forehead on the ground, kneeling prostrate before Goddramon. The small, armored dragon was an ant compared the monstrous, golden-scaled wyvern.

"We shall send something most unerring, dogged, cold, heartless and incapable of distraction," whispered Goddramon. The golden dragon reached forward with a single claw. "Behold the power of your god, for I reach into the loom and will bring forth new life…" A swirl of fractal code swam around Goddramon's claw as he extracted it from the loom. He placed the raw code on the floor. Goddramon curled upward, his legless body hovering in the air on those sharply-feathered wings, and he lifted his right arm. The band of red armor covering the wrist of the arm glowed. "Summon, Umon, The Creator!"

A blue dragon made of energy fired from Goddramon's right arm. The raw fractal code replicated itself several times as the blue energy dragon swam around the data. The streams of fractal started to take shape. The creature started out small. It had mottled greenish-gray scales and a snout like an Agumons', save for it being thinner and more triangular. A camouflaged army helmet was on its head and it wore camouflaged, body armor and carried an M-16 rifle. Its arms and legs were mechanical. It looked up at Goddramon.

"I – Am – De-sig-na-ted – As – Com-man-dra-mon!" the creature's voice was mechanical and clipped at the end of syllables. "I – Re-quest - Com-mands…"

"I see that, and you are good," Goddramon gurgled happily as he watched the other portions of fractal code take on the same shape. Goddramon reached upwards, into the shadows, and withdrew a black digi-core. "Dark digi-core Activate!"

Strands of darkness swept over the digimon in front of him. Megidramon laughed loudly as the small, M-16 armed digimon evolved into larger beasts. These were completely robotic. They maintained a barely humanoid, bipedal stance. Their blocky armor was solid grayish-green and covered the entirety of their body. Their feet had a single metal claw. Their heads had a helmet with a yellow tipped crest. One of their eyes was cybernetic and larger than the other, organic eye. A segmented, armored tail swished behind them as they looked up. Attached to their backs were two spears though the spears were more than they seemed, as they carried an energy weapon also.

"We – Have – Ev-olved," announced the digimon in unison, "We – Are - De-sig-nat-ed – As - SEALS-dra-mon. We – Re-quest – Orders!"

"Ah but first," Goddramon said, as he held the Dark Digicore. "Let us see one more evolution."

The rank of digimon in front of him looked up. The darkness swept around them and soon their bodies grew. They had treaded wheels now, and the chassis of a tank. Four cannons stuck up from the lower, tank body. A dragon torso seemed to be welded into the tank and was held between a pair of metallic jaws that were painted with the image of a dragon's face. A pair of arms sprouted out of the blue-skinned, dragon's torso which ended in clawed hands.

"De-sig-na-tion, Tank-dra-mon," the digimon looked forward emotionlessly. "We – Re-quest – Or-ders!"

Goddramon nodded happily as the tank dragons looked up at him. "There is a digimon I want you to find. You will go forth, find a digimon designated as Beelzemon. We believe that he may have returned to an area known as the Shadowbane Forest, there is a city there inhabited by viral digimon. He used to have a stronghold there. You are to go to Shadowbane Forest and find him. Other than the one identified as Beelzemon all other non-dragon digimon are to be considered your mortal enemy; you're prime directive is to exterminate all the vermin, non-dragon digimon that you can! The dragon digimon are the superior species! All inferior beasts are to be exterminated! Do you understand!?"

"We – shall – seek – Be-el-ze-mon! We - shall - lo-cate – Be-el-ze-mon," chorused the tank digimon. The dragon torsos drew into the back of the 'throat' of the metallic maw that they inhabited. The upper portions of the upper portion of the metal jaw closed down enclosing the blue skinned dragon completely. The lights that made up the eyes of the metallic head blinked as the mechanical voices started to chant slowly. "We – will – Ex-terrrrrrrm – inate - all – other – non-dra-gon – di-gi-mon!"

"That's right, now go; find him!" Goddramon chuckled, "Go my Tankdramon, go and find him and exterminate all, other heathens!"

"Seek! Lo-cate! EXTERMINATE!" chorused the Tankdramon as their tank treads rolled to life and the massive chassis spun around on a dime. The chant got louder, more fevered almost rabid. "SEEK! LOCATE! EXTERMINATE! SEEK – LOCATE - EXTERRRRMINATE!"


	10. The Fall of Loto Dell'Ombra

**I don't own digimon…at all, nor the character traits of the Tankdramon. Hopefully the Nation estate won't sue… **

**As Rusty Says, "Steal from the best". **

**The Fall of Loto Dell'Ombra**

**888**

A sharp howl in the pre-dawn twilight brought his hazel eyes snapping open. He lifted himself up on his bony palms, pushing himself away from the tree he had been leaning against. It was a gnarled affair with patchy bunches of leaves covering its skeletal crown. A cold, sunless breeze made his long, roseate sleeves flap in the air. His metallic sandals were covered in crud and dirt from yesterday's walk through the swamp.

He was a Matadormon. He was shepherding his flock of Black Sheepmon from the meadows on the eastern fringes of Shadowbane Forest to a lake, fed by a glacier on the western regions of the forest. It was usually a two day journey. He, his flock and his pack of Sangloupmon would stay in the meadows for two or three days subsisting on the tannin rich waters of the creeks that crooked their way through the forests. The Black Sheepmon would feed hardily on meadow grass while they drank from the unpleasant, nature-made tea water. After a couple of days the shepherd's stomach would twist at the acrid water and would then start their trek across the forest till they came to a great, clear lake.

This was the second day of their trip and they were nearly at the lake but Matadormon had decided to rest for the day. The sun wasn't healthy for him and now that they were on the outer edges of the forest, it wasn't necessarily good for him to be rigorously traveling during the daylight.

There was second howl that brought Matadormon to the present. The sound was coming from a clearing up ahead where his flocked had lowed and where he had set his Sangloupmon up as guards. The howl was from one of his Sangloupmon. Matadormon growled in agitation as he curled his long, bladed fingers. It meant one thing. A pack of digimon was attacking his flock.

He leapt into the air and with a long, gliding leap he pushed himself the canopy of the increasingly bunchy forest. He could see the crops of trees appearing in small groves, separated by growing swathes of grassland. The twilight sky glowed with a sharply contrasting purple and orange light. It wasn't long before he was looking down over a fluffy, black clearing in the middle of a particularly dense area of trees. Their voices mumbled up to him as distressed 'baahs'. He saw a couple of his Sangloupmon flitting over the flock as streaks of astral energy. One or two more of the blood wolves were grouped at the edge of the forest. He could tell by their arched backs that they were bristling angrily at something.

Matadormon dove down towards the edge of his flock. He was curious as to what his sheep dogs were snarling at. It could be any number of things from a pack of Fangmon or Garurumon to a pride of Raiamon or Loader Leomon to viral Greymon to even a group of bandits. Matadormon narrowed his eyes. He had heard that a gang of Giromon was in the area.

Matadormon's sharp edged sandals touched the earth as he landed silently on the hard, trampled ground. He walked forward slowly as his eyes tried to pierce the shadows of the trees. He could hear his hounds growling and snarling in a subdued tone. From his position, he could see the wings on the wolves' shoulders erected and the fur on their backs standing on end. Their triangular ears were flat against their heads as their long, vampiric fangs were bared, angrily, against their curled lips.

"What is it, boys?" Matadormon whispered as he moved between the statuesque, beasts.

Their replies were only, deep, throaty growls. Matadormon looked up. A metallic glint pierced the forest shadows as the twilight was transformed into the first sprinkling rays of morning sun. A beige, metallic crocodilian head looked back at him. The squat head was like a prism and attached to a thickly armored, tank body complete with treaded wheels. One of two pairs of cannons was pointed in his face.

"I-dent-i-fi-ca-tion, Commmm-plete!" rattled the tank creature. Each syllable accentuated by the flash of a pair of yellow lights. "None – of – the contacts – are - Be-Elze-mon. Execute – Primary – Commm-mand!"

"What the heck are you?" Matadormon took a wavering step backward as the tank's engines rumbled to life and its wheels purred into the ground pulling the bulky metallic beast forward.

"We – Are – Tank-dra-mon!" announced the tank as it rolled forward.

Matadormon's hounds snarled a retreat taking a few angry steps backward. Matadormon held his ground letting the wolves retreat behind him. He extended his thin arms fully, concealing the Sangloupmon behind the expansive sleeves draped on his arms.

"What's this command…?" Matadormon looked at the tank. "What are you doing out here talking like there are more than one of you, when there is only one of you?"

"You – are – not a – dra-gon – di-gi-mon!" the tank returned confidently, "You – are – not – BE-el-zemon! You – will – be –EXTERMINATED! ALL – CONTACTS WILL BE EX-TERRRRRMINATED!"

"Exterminated?" Matadormon hissed taking a step back, "Acting like I'm some sort of rat…"

"You – Are!" the mechanical, buzzing voice screeched. "You – are – our – enemy! The – Dra-gon – Digimon – ARE –THE – SU-PREME –BEINGS – OF THIS WORLD! WE WILL DEEEEE-FEEEEAT, DEEEE-SSSSTROY AND EXTERMMMMMM-INATE ALL ENEMIES OF THE DRAGONS!"

"Enemy!?" Matadormon shouted back pointing at the crazed tank, "What the heck are you talking about? You must have a corrupted file in your processor! You act as if we're at war with each other!"

"THE DRAGONS ARE AT WAR!" shouted the tank loudly. "YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE DRAGONS! YOU WILL BE EXTERMMMMMM-INATED!"

"Why?" Matadormon hissed his question angrily at the dragon, "I am a shepherd, that's all! I'm not fighting in a war! There are rules that say you can't kill noncombatants. I'm not a combatant!"

"THAT IS IRRELEVANT!" the tank replied with its clipped voice. Its voice was less squawky and seemed calmer. "YOU ARE NOT A DRAGON DIGIMON! YOU ARE NOT BEELZEMON!"

"So? I'm not a combatant, you can't kill me," Matadormon reasoned glaring at the beast as the sunlight swept over its surface.

"You – will – be – ex-terrrrminated," the tank's lights blinked as it made the statement.

"You can't!" Matadormon shouted as a pair of energy cannons swiveled into position. There was a disheartening whine as the weapons charged.

"EXTERMINATE!" roared the tank loudly. "EXTERMINATE!"

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" Matadormon's skin froze as the chants erupted from the forest.

More of the tank creatures rolled out of the forest, from all directions, surrounding Matadormon and his flock. The Black Sheepmon were now bawling in terror as their hoofs pranced on the ground. The Sangloupmon were snarling as they backed up. The ones that had been in the air were now amongst the curly wool of the Black Sheepmon, trying to keep the herd composed.

"If you do this, you will get into a fight you can't win," Matadormon shouted sliding one of his clawed hands under his eyes. "You may think you're superior but if you kill us, the others will come, I have friends, they'll notice and you'll be hunted down and destroyed!"

"EXTERMINATE!" was the reply from all the Tankdramon at once. There was a piercing zap.

Matadormon winced as striped lasers sliced past him. He spun around and found his herd cut to ribbons. The remainders were frozen stiff in terror, having seen their brethren vaporized. The Sangloupmon howled and leapt forward.

"No!" Matadormon shouted as the vampire wolves charged on the metal beasts.

The energy cannons swiveled out of place, replaced by Gatling cannons. Matadormon staggered backward as he watched his sheep wolves, some of the best friends he'd ever had, ripped to shreds by chain gun ammunition. Matadormon feverishly whistled to the remaining sheep he had left trying to pull them into a single, more easily defensible position. The sheep were unwilling and the Tankdramon were encroaching on them from all directions.

The Gatling guns swiveled away as the energy cannons swept up in their place. The sharp edges of the tank's squat, metallic head became apparent as light bounced off the ridges. It was impassive, unemotional, and totally interested in the terrified bawls of the Sheepmon that were around Matadormon.

"Tar-get-ing - com-put-ers – ac-cept – fir-ing sol-u-tion," announced the Tankdramon in front of him, the yellow lights on its head blinking with the syllables.

"Thousand Arrows!" Matadormon screamed as thousands of razor blades flew from his arm, as it swiped forward.

The razors pelted the squat, armored head with hollow thuds. Matadormon staggered backward, tripping over one of his stock. There was. He looked up as the tank rolled forward.

"Ex-termmmminate," was the cold call of action.

Matadormon felt it burn his back and sides as he was deleted from the inside out. He uttered a single hissing scream as his throat burned away.

888

"This is insane," purred a voluptuous woman. She put her feline feet on a heavy wooden table which stood in the middle of a grand, Florentine council room complete with tall plate glass windows that allowed exceeding amounts of light into the white washed room. Her long clawed hand twisted a semi-floppy, triangular ear. "Why are we here again?"

"Many homesteads and surrounding villages have ceased communication with us, Bastemon," A red hooded Phantomon replied. Its blue eyes fell on the female digimon from the opposite side of the table. "There are words from the farmers that an army is coming here."

"I doubt it," Bastemon snorted as her two black tails wrapped themselves around her bountiful, leopard printed hips. "No invasion force has ever come this far…Shadowbane Forest is too, intimidating. Nothing has come in or out of the forest for months."

"Hiding behind trees will only work for so long," A beast spoke eloquently from the far end of the table, the only place in the room bathed in shadow. His horned head was like that of a goat as were his shaggy legs. His torso was humanoid enough. His black wings were folded gently against his back. "Reports suggest this invasion is mechanical. Some say that it the invaders are Tankmon, maybe the Metal City is planning to expand its territory."

"It is not just that," chuckled a voice on the opposite end of the table from the goat.

He was very human. His flesh was red like a cooked lobster's. A pair of sprigs poked from the top of his heads. His face and head looked as if they had been cut from rock; in fact the man's body looked chiseled. A pair of lavender wings was held tautly perpendicular with his torso.

"What then, Phelesmon?" the goat looked up and enclosed his ham sized fists together.

"Mephistomon left out the fact that they are heartless, and seem to be impenetrable," said the red devil as he took a similar stance as the goat, with his hands enclosed together. "Phantomon, your patrol came up on these things this morning, didn't they?"

"Only the after effects," The red hooded phantom looked down as he rubbed the sleeve of his gray cloak, "It was a disaster…the entire village was a smoldering pile of ash. There were no survivors."

"Heh, yous haven't even spoke about Lord Beelzemon's palace," chuckled a voice as the sound of doors creaking ended in a loud, reverberating crash. The man that walked in was wearing a pinstriped suit. A fur-collared jacket hung on his shoulders and a red scarf was swept around his neck. The man had a mask over his gray flesh. "Have I missed anything from this meeting of the 'Great and Good' of the great city-state of Loto Dell'Ombra."

"Save Wisemon," The goat spoke. "He disappeared late last night. I suspect he found out about them, and ran. None of his men are in the city either."

"Cut and run?" Astamon sat down next to Bastemon. He put a hand in his jacket pocket and produced a wine glass. He put the glass down and reached into his jacket pulling out a small canteen and gently poured out a maroon liquid into the glass. "Not exactly Wisemon's type of action."

"What's this about Beelzemon's chateau that you were going on about?" Phantomon looked up at the Mafioso demon across the table from him.

"Nothing, really, save the lights were on last night and this morning," sighed Astamon as he lifted his glass by its thin neck and took a sip. He cringed and stuck his tongue out, "Bad year…"

"Did anyone think of going up there to see if there was anything moving into the palace?" Phantomon looked around the table at his fellow digimon.

"Lights were on, but no one was home," Phelesmon stated with a sigh of disappointment. "I sent some of my men up there. They said nothing was up there."

"You believe the word of your Boogeymon," Bastemon giggled quietly covering her mouth lightly with her hand. "It's so cute!"

"They have no reason to lie…and no desire to either," Phelesmon stated with enough venom that the other members of the meeting shuddered. The red devil leaned forward pressing his claws through the tips of his black-gloved hands into the wooden table. "The last underling that lied to me ended up as the center piece of my garden."

"So then there's no one there," Bastemon flipped her wrists up dismissively, as she spoke airily. "I still don't see why we're here. A village was torched, a few homesteads obliterated, could be anything. The forest is crawling with every unpleasant beast you could imagine."

"There is honor even amongst the thieves," Mephistomon stated solemnly. The winged goat-man stood. "Even our most unpleasant beasts living under our nose wouldn't do this."

"So, then it wasn't just a local beast!" Phantomon hopped forward.

"As it was said, we're being invaded," Mephistomon whispered as he looked out the window at the mountains that rose up to the south of the city. He could just make out Beelzemon's old chateau on a plateau that sprang up at the edge of one of the nearest mountains. "By whom or what, I'm not sure. Someone is trying to get to us though."

"We must muster all of our resources and bring them to bear against this invasion," Phelesmon stroked the pointed beard at the end of his chin. "It is the only way to be sure we will remain safe. We have to scour the forest and out whatever forces are at work. "

"There is no point in mustering anything until we know that there is an invasion coming!" Bastemon grumbled loudly. Her green eyes glared at Phelesmon, "You just want to show off your beasties."

"But we have to remember Digi-Roma," Astamon said as he swirled the wine in his glass, lazily. "It sat back on its haunches and then the insects destroyed it…I agree with Phelesmon, this is a strike against us, against our family, and no one makes a hit on the family without us hittin' back."

"I have no doubt that there's a threat," Phantomon nodded sharply. "I cast my support behind Phelesmon! We should scour the forest and oust this invasion!"

"You all just are fretting something that you haven't seen," Bastemon snarled slamming her paws on the table. "I never expected the Dons of the viral stronghold, Loto Dell'Ombra, to be afraid of something that goes bump in the woods!"

"You're outvoted, don't whine about it," Phelesmon snorted as he leaned back in his chair.

"Don't count on it," Mephistomon looked up. "I haven't voted to scour the forest; it would be a waste of time and resources. I think we should wall up here in the city."

"Then we're at an impasse," Bastemon sighed in a bad attempt to look disappointed. "I mean there are only the five of us, and well, without knowing how Wisemon would vote, we can't really do anything as a whole…"

"Yes, it has been a bad eighteen months, Skull Satamon disappeared last year, and now Wisemon is gone," Mephistomon grumbled. He walked out of the shadows on his side of the room and winced as he looked out the window. It seemed a portion of the shadow he had been standing in had followed him as a haze seemed to dilute the light coming from the morning sun outside. "I will send my men to find Wisemon, until then I'm using my position as prima consul to enact Emergency Protocol Eight. All city-state defenses will come under my supervision. We will bring in all stray patrols and take up a defensive position at the walls of our city. If this invasion force comes here, they will be pushed back."

The other digimon looked up at the winged satyr. Their glaring eyes spoke for them. Mephistomon snorted through his goatish snout. The other council members clenched their jaws and then glared at one another.

"This is underhanded," Phantomon piped up. "You're grabbing power for no reason, for all we know Wisemon is hunting out in the forest! You act as if he's died or defected! The council can't be subverted like this! This is a misuse of your title! You have to show proof…"

"You are dismissed," Mephistomon gritted through his teeth. He swung his horned head around.

"No!" Phantomon lifted himself up. "I won't be told to leave! I have a duty to my men and the people under my supervision! I won't let you turn this into a tyranny by fast talking and…"

"I said, 'you are dismissed'," Mephistomon cut the ghost off. "You will go to your manors, you will send dispatches out to the patrols you have, and you will have all your guards and militia men report to me. Now, I can do this nicely and request you to do this, or I can have you escorted by a group of my own guards to make sure it gets done."

"When Wisemon gets back here!" Phantomon seethed, angrily, clenching a fist.

"If I find Wisemon," Mephistomon affirmed calmly. The goat looked out of the window seemingly disinterested in what was going on in the room he was in. "Now go!"

The council members rose. They grumbled slightly but each one of them left, first Phelesmon and then Phantomon. Bastemon and Astamon left together, leaving Mephistomon alone. Mephistomon lifted a hand and closed his fist. The air behind him shimmered as a beast phased into existence behind him. It had a round head with floppy dog-like ears. A skull cap was on the top of its head with an image of an ivory, boney face on it. Its body was like a gorilla's. It had a wide, shaggy chest, narrow hairless abdomen and wide, furry pelvis. Its shoulders were round and shaggy. The region around its elbow was thin and hairless and its lower arms were heavily muscled and furry. Its lower appendages were similarly arranged.

"Marstar?" the beast growled slowly. Mephistomon didn't turn or even acknowledge the voice at first.

"Endigomon, go find Wisemon," Mephistomon commanded as he glared out the window. "Get him here as soon as possible. Tell him we need him, get him here at any cost, but please put violence at one of the lower levels of your repertoire list."

"Yessss, Marstar…" the beast nodded slowly and the air shifted again. A breeze twisted through Mephistomon's gray fur on his face.

"Where are you, Wisemon? Why are you hiding?" The winged satyr sighed as he looked out onto the market that was starting to open in the streets.

888

His body felt heavy and his head pounded. Beelzemon tried to lift one of his hands but it was like lifting a medicine ball made of lead. He grunted as he found his muscles stubbornly unresponsive.

"I wouldn't try to move for a bit," A wise, smooth voice sauntered into his ear. "The anesthesia spell I used is quite potent, try to move too much…and you'll rip your muscle fibers into frayed threads and the pain will be even more excruciating than it is now.

His eyes rolled to the side of his head where the voice had come from. His body's grumbles had kept him from really noticing where he was. It was brick room. A thin, board-like mattress was pushing up against his back. His head was resting on a deflated pillow. The light from a candle danced over the brickwork of the wall, giving the whole room a gilded look.

"Where…?" Beelzemon tried to speak but his throat muscles, his tongue and his lips were as stubborn as his arms, legs and wings. He sighed slightly in relief, he still had wings.

"You'd think of all digimon you'd know this place," said the voice.

Beelzemon grunted as he forced his head on its side. It felt like someone was trying to twist his head off. There was a figure hovering in front of a heavy table. Candles were on either side of the digimon. Long robes were draped on the digimon's body, covering it completely. Two clawed hands were lifting flasks and pouring the contents of the flasks into other flasks. Red liquids fizzled as the digimon poured them from their beaker into a beaker filled with blue liquid. The fizzling released a smoke that wafted through the room, filling it with a citrus smell. The blue liquid that had been in the second flask turned black and then slowly faded to a rusty orange.

"What…?" Beelzemon would've furrowed his brow in disgust at his mono-word sentences if his eyebrows would listen to the request.

"Don't know, but I have a guess," the digimon said as he turned around. A golden hood covered the digimon's face and only his yellow eyes gleamed out of the shadows. He glided forward. "You have burns indicative of Megidramon, Goddramon and Holydramon, as well as burns from Zhuqiaomon and Azulongmon. One of your legs had been transmuted into some form of holy metal, possibly silver, which suggests being hit by Baihumon's Vajra. You also had miasma circulating through your body, holy miasma, suggesting you were hit by Ebonwumon's Phantom Mist. I don't know what happened, Lord Beelzemon, but all the evidence points to you being in one hell of a fight."

"Wise…" Beelzemon winced as he tried for two syllable speech.

"Yes, I sensed you; you fell nearby," the digimon nodded. "I am Wisemon. I sensed you coming. You are indeed the great Lord Beelzemon, only he could muster the determination to continue traveling after being so severely injured. You are lucky I sensed you before the others…They'd have locked you up and beaten you down until you disintegrated…probably consuming your data."

"You…" Beelzemon's eyes rolled up to the digimon. "…aren't?"

"No," Wisemon said, Beelzemon could sense a smile in the shadows under his hood, "despite how it looks." The phantasmal wizard turned back to his table. "You were in unendurable pain, and were being quite loud. A regiment of Boogeymon came up here from Loto Dell'Ombra. The others must have noticed the lights on. I had to silence you to keep you from being discovered."

"Home…" Beelzemon looked up at the ceiling of the room.

"Yes, this is your chateau," Wisemon replied, "I found this priest hole about a year ago, and this small laboratory. I figured it would be a good place to hide you. Most of the digimon are afraid to come here; they say Daemon put a curse on this house when he was defeated by the Dragons. The other Dons do come up here, hoping to find some sort of magic or weapon. They are a bunch of dusty, old, backstabbing senators tottering around, trying to make themselves more frightening than they are…"

Beelzemon sighed in aggravation. His body was almost completely numb. "When…?"

Wisemon turned his head and lifted a clawed hand gently rolled his fingers and touched his pointer finger to his thumb. "I'll lift it slightly, you'll be able to sit up and talk, but don't strain yourself."

The heaviness of his body lifted but it was replaced by needles, thousands of angry, burning, barbed needles that pricked snapped and tore at his muscles and flesh. Beelzemon trembled as he lifted himself up into a sitting position. Claws of fiery pain dug into his legs and chest as he leaned against the cold, brick wall behind him.

"I'm grateful to ya," Beelzemon winced as he pressed his hands against his stiff cot.

"You are the last Great Demon Lord in the Digital World," Wisemon replied, not turning around. "I felt it was only right that I treated you properly."

"The Dragons are back," Beelzemon whispered through clenched teeth as a particularly loud jackhammer rammed in his skull.

"I surmised as much from your injuries," Wisemon spoke in an uninterested fashion as he twisted a knob that controlled gas flow to a Bunsen burner. A nearly invisible flame sprouted at the top of the cylindrical metal pipe at the end of gas pipe. A blue tinge framed the imperceptible flame. "The Harmonious Ones must have engaged them, and you got caught in the middle…but you were sentenced to being stuck in your Rookie form, by the Great Dragons. How did you retrieve your power?"

"Used the Dark Digi-core," Beelzemon grunted as he felt his stomach. "It evidently was made of stronger stuff than the dragons."

"The Dragons are freed; I suspect you freed them…" Wisemon spoke without judgment.

"Yes," Beelzemon grunted as cramps tightened his stomach into a ball.

"May I ask; why?" Wisemon's words were soft and silky.

"To make reparations for my actions," Beelzemon grunted as the cramps tightened into a rock. "The dragons are pawns…in a greater game…In order to make sure our game is played correctly, they must rule the world."

"So, there's a war going on outside the forest," Wisemon used a pair of tongs to lift a small glass tube, filled with a green liquid, up to the flame of the Bunsen burner, "the Harmonious Ones Vs the Great Dragons. Who's winning?"

"The Great Dragons destroyed the Harmonious Ones," Beelzemon replied as he winced and curled forward holding his stomach. It felt as if something was burning his abdomen from the inside out.

Wisemon dropped his tongs, and the tube clattered to the ground, shattering, "All of them?"

"Yes," Beelzemon snarled between his clenched teeth as the burning got worse.

Wisemon turned around and glided up to him. The wizard withdrew a long needle and pushed Beelzemon back against the wall. The needle had a green fluid in it. Beelzemon pulled his hands from his stomach and pressed them onto his cot. His claws tore into the fabric. Wisemon jerked his hand forward and Beelzemon felt something stab his stomach, seconds later the abdominal cramps disappeared.

"You still have miasma in your body," Wisemon sighed as he pulled the needle from Beelzemon. Wisemon's golden eyes peered into Beelzemon's eyes, "How will your plan work with no one to challenge the dragons?"

"The Harmonious Ones are gone, but their power is still in this world," Beelzemon sighed in relief as his claws pulled out of the cot.

"The Great Dragons will be looking for you," Wisemon stated as he turned from Beelzemon. "They will want to talk to you. This will be the first place they'll look."

"There will be something coming soon," Beelzemon nodded, slowly clenching and unclenching his clawed hands. "I should move on…"

"Heh, you're not going anywhere," Wisemon said with a laugh. "In your condition you'd die."

"Then heal me," Beelzemon snarled as he pushed forward.

"You act as if healing your injuries was a matter of putting a band-aid on your nose and kissing your forehead," Wisemon chuckled as he opened a scroll. "You're lucky I could keep you alive, not just anyone can cure the damage inflicted by some of the most powerful, Mega digimon in this world. The metal transmutation took most of the night. I'm still fighting with that miasma. The burns…well, the burns will heal themselves."

"If I'm here you're a target," Beelzemon grunted as he attempted standing. His legs were wobbly, and his spiked boots felt like they were on rolling sand. His heavy crocodilian tail swished lazily as he staggered forward. "I'm showing my gratitude by not getting you killed…"

"Bah, they have to find us first," Wisemon waved a hand dismissively. The mage turned his head, "I told you not to stand…"

"I feel fine," Beelzemon grumbled.

"Shh," Wisemon swept around and looked around himself.

"What?" Beelzemon growled.

Wisemon only glared at Beelzemon and put a finger up to where his mouth was hidden.

"Something is happening…down in the valley," Wisemon hissed quietly.

Beelzemon snorted and crossed his arms, but then he heard it, the low, unassuming sound of rumbling. He clenched his jaw as he listened to the distant thunder.

"They are already here," Beelzemon growled. "Already in the forest."

"The city will hold them, for a bit," Wisemon stated, waving a hand. He turned back to his work table. "Do not worry, I've put up a barrier, no one gets in this place without me knowing it. I'll protect you, so rest."

Beelzemon growled but his legs started to cramp and he fell backward onto his cot and he reclined in defeat as Wisemon came over and applied a salve to his legs.

888

Smoke wafted over the walls of the city. The forest was now aflame. Mephistomon was standing at one of the watch towers. Next to him were his Gargoylemon. The white beasts were crouched on either side of the tower. They had thin bodies and long arms. Their wings were white.

Boogeymon were marching along the battlements of the walls, their pitchforks slung over their shoulders like rifles. Their soft red bodies were only slightly like that of their master, Phelesmon. They had pot bellies. Their long faces had sharp, pointed noses and backward sloping horns. Their feet curled upward at the toes as their tails swished behind them. Behind the walls were huge, dinosaurs bathed in black flames. They were the Dark Lizamon. Around the huge beasts were the white robed ghosts, the Bakemon. They glided around in loose formations. Further in the city he could pick out the patchwork koala digimon Pokyupamon.

The forest literally shook as Mephistomon watched birds and flying digimon self-evict from the forest. At the base of the city walls the ground shook as digimon leapt out of the underbrush. The thin and lank coyotes known as the Fangmon loped around snatching up smaller digimon like the greenish worms the Kunemon. A black and brown, tiger-striped wolf leapt out of the forest snarling as it twisted around. Small feathery projections pointed off its shoulders as its ribbon like tails twisted together. More beasts retreated out of the forest; these were a group of dinosaurs. Green flesh and curling horns and tusks twisted off their shoulders. A group of lavender dinosaurs stomped out of the burning foliage. They had square heads on their shoulders. Their arms were strange; one arm had a metallic serpent head for a hand. The other arm had a bony tyrannosaur head for a hand. Green monkeys in leopard print loin clothes leapt out of the canopy and scurried quickly behind the bigger digimon. Their heads ever turned backward toward whatever terror was chasing them.

Mephistomon looked down into the forest. Smoke trailed out of the leaves of the canopy. He looked down at the fidgeting groups below. The tiger striped wolf glared up at him.

"Let us in!" shouted the wolf with a snarl.

"I can't do that, my dear Garurumon," Mephistomon called down to the wolf and smirked as a terror filled gaze blinked up at him. Mephistomon shrugged his shoulders. "We can't compromise the walls of Loto Dell'Ombra."

"Open the gates!" shouted the wolf. "Open them now, before it's too late!"

"No," Mephistomon said, calmly, folding his arms across his chest.

"We're under your watch, you can't deny us protection!" the wolf howled, angrily. He looked into the forest. "They'll be here soon! Please! Let us in!"

"It would pointless to risk our safety to ensure yours," Mephistomon sighed, watching the forest as trees literally exploded into woodchips and steam. "Run away, if you think you're in danger."

"We did run," Garurumon growled. "They followed…they want us dead!"

"Yeah, like they chased you across the forest just to kill you," Mephistomon chuckled as he watched the rustling forest.

"They do!" One of the monkeys yelped. "They think we're vermin. Please, let us in! Before it's too late!"

"It already is too late, Koemon," Garurumon took a step back, pushing himself against the walls of the city.

Mephistomon peered over the edge of the walls. All the digimon were pressed against the walls their eyes glued to the edge of the forest. His ears twitched as the sound of a diesel engine rumbled out of the forest, the whine of shifting gears screeched forward and the sound of twigs snapping under treaded tires crackled up to him.

"Well, we'll finally see this threat," Mephistomon mused.

"If you have anything in your heart," gulped the little Koemon. The monkey looked up pleadingly to Mephistomon. "Open the gate…let us in!"

"Enemies – of – the – Draaa-gons - have been – lo-caaaated," a screechy mechanical voice shuddered out of the forest. "They – will – be ex-terrrrrrminated!"

A pair of striped lasers fired out of the forest. Three Fangmon evaporated as the beams burned through them. The roar of an engine snarled forward as multiple metal beasts rolled out of the forest. Green, rectangular bodies were attached to shielded, treaded wheels. Pyramidal, metallic heads with yellow lights denoting the eyes were welded to the tanks' chassis. Pairs of energy cannons were pointed at the digimon huddled against the city walls.

"Let us in!" screamed the monkeys as they clawed at the walls of Loto Dell'Ombra. "FOR ALL THAT IS GOOD LET US IN!"

"We're on our own," Garurumon snarled as he glared up at Mephistomon. "You have sentenced us to death!"

"Then die," Mephistomon replied as he watched.

"You – are – enemies of the Draaaa-gons," the front-most tank droned as the lights on its head blinked in time to the vocalization.

"Then I'll act like one!" snarled Garurumon loudly as he looked at the others around him. The Fangmon and Koemon were trembling. Garurumon snorted angrily, "Stand up with me, we won't just lie down and die!"

The lanky, red and black coyotes gulped and looked at the wolf with trepidation. The dinosaurs were stomping the ground and snorting at one another.

"You, Tuskmon," Garurumon shouted at the herd of horned digimon. The green scaled dinosaurs stopped and glared at the tiger striped wolf. Garurumon looked at the lavender dinosaur with the strange heads for hands, "and you, Deltamon, you shake in fear, but I know you're tough. Stop trembling and fight back!"

"This should be good," Mephistomon chuckled at Garurumon's rally call. The winged goat man turned his head to one of the red devils at his side, "With any luck they'll do all the work for us."

"Everyone, stand your ground!" shouted Garurumon as he tensed his thin legs and arched his back, his fur rising on end.

The dinosaurs seemed to get their courage back and growled leaning forward and putting their arms forward like they were getting ready to grapple with the enemy. Even the Fangmon, who were presumably the most cowardly and sniveling of the beasts in the forest, had their dander up and their fangs shown.

"Charge!" Garurumon roared as he leapt forward.

The Fangmon bounded after the black and brown wolf. Energy balls formed at the three mouths of the Deltamon and they jointed together and they fired forward. The Tuskmon roared and thrust their black and red horns forward.

"Blast Coffin!" The Fangmon howled as dark energy exploded into the tanks.

"Howling Blaster!" Garurumon black flames rushed from Garurumon's toothy mouth.

The energy and flames rushed around the tanks. The machines stoically stood their ground, not moving in any way. The initial attack faded away and the tanks were silent. Garurumon and the Fangmon stopped, looking at the invaders with a sneer.

"Petrified," snorted Garurumon as he turned his back. "Like I thought, 'all talk and nothing to back it up'."

"Ex-terrrr-mmminate," The front-most tank spoke matter-of-factly.

Garurumon turned his head back. Mephistomon quirked and eyebrow as the energy cannons twitched into position. The tiger wolf curled its lips as energy beams zinged past him, deleting the Fangmon around him. The Tuskmon growled loudly and charged forward only to be obliterated by a second wave of lasers. The Deltamon staggered backward and fell against the city walls as the tanks slowly advanced. Garurumon leapt backward and released another wave of flames into the tanks. The line of machines pushed through the flames.

"Die!" roared Garurumon as he leapt forward.

"EXTERMINATE!" Garurumon exploded into data as lasers lanced through his body.

It was short order. The Deltamon melted against the walls of Loto Dell'Ombra. The Koemon tried to run but the tanks corralled them and then executed them. After the massacre the tanks stopped moving for a few seconds and then spun around to face the city walls. The energy cannons pointed up at the battlements.

"Non-draaaa-gon – digimon - deeee-tected – with-in – these – waaaalls," The shrill voice of the tank announced.

"They – shall – be – ex-terrr-mmmminated!" announced another of the tanks.

"Ok, that's it," Mephistomon turned to the Boogeymon around him. "Lock and load boys."

The Boogeymon brought their pitchforks off of their shoulders and pointed them at the tanks at the bottom of the walls. Mephistomon nodded to the multiple Gargoylemon hovering in the air. Their lank bodies with thin waists and long arms and thin wings fell forward. Their clawed hands clenched around small statuettes they carried with them. Mephistomon lifted his hand and then dropped it.

"Death Clash!" roared the Boogeymon as black lightning fired from their pitchforks and rained down on the tanks.

"Statue Bomber!" the Gargoylemon released the statuettes they carried. The small sculptures fell to the earth exploding like bombs on the tanks.

Mephistomon smirked as the smoke twisted around. Mephistomon smile grew as the seconds ticked past and no return fire was launched from the ground. Mephistomon lifted his hand, silently ordering the cessation of his offensive.

"This is over," Mephistomon announced, "That'll show that no one will ever break these…."

"EXTERMINATE!" A shrill, annoyed scream rang out.

Hundreds of lasers fired forward picking off Boogeymon to Mephistomon's left and right. The red devils quickly dove for the floor. Mephistomon snapped his head down and saw the smoke twist out of the way and the tanks waiting below, unharmed, hardly scratched and with their death rays pointed up at the battlements. Another volley of lasers cut through the air striking down the white, flying gargoyles. Mephistomon narrowed his eyes as the marble colored digimon evaporated in front of him.

"It looks like I'll have to do this myself," Mephistomon lifted his hand. A black orb filled his bestial palm. "Black Sabbath!" The orb shot down and exploded on one of the tanks. The metal beast ruptured from the inside out and exploded, leaving a blackened crater behind. The other tanks swiveled around and seemed to stare at the crater. Mephistomon smirked happily, "That's right, now run away. You can't survive this battle."

The tanks swiveled back around and pointed their energy cannons at Mephistomon. "Exterminate!"

Mephistomon staggered backward as laser bolts sliced past his shoulders and wings. One laser burned into furry, left thigh. Mephistomon flapped his wings and dropped from the battlements. The remaining Boogeymon fled the battlements as the lasers sizzled over the wall and flitted into the sky.

"Back up the wall!" Mephistomon shouted as he pointed forward. "Dark Lizamon, you Bakemon, take up defense positions. If that wall falls, destroy anything that comes through!" Mephistomon turned and started to walk away. "Hold your positions! NO RETREAT!"

His cloven hooves marched across the cobble stone street as he walked away from the digimon he just commanded. The other Dons were up the street, sitting haughtily at a small, outdoor restaurant a few blocks away. Mephistomon snarled slightly as he approached them.

"So, how goes the warmongering?" Astamon chuckled lifting a wine glass half filled with crimson liquid.

"You should be ashamed of yourselves!" Mephistomon shouted, loudly, smacking the wine glass out of the hand of the demon in the pinstriped suit.

He glared at the other three. Bastemon was sitting relaxed in her chair a pastry held daintily in her clawed hand. Phantomon was polishing the golden blade of his Shadow Scythe. Phelesmon sipped a cup of tea his jagged, red face unperturbed by Mephistomon's ire.

"We should've engaged them out there," Phelesmon said as he looked into his tea cup, gently swirling the contents in his cup. The muscularly taut, crimson devil lifted his eyes to meet the goatish glare of Mephistomon. "Say you're sorry…and we'll help you out of this mess…"

"Have you found Wisemon yet?" Phantomon's azure eyes flitted up to Mephistomon as the ghost's challenge hissed through the air.

"Not yet," Mephistomon snorted out of his snout. The large nostrils flaring as he looked away from the phantom. "That is not important; we have an invasion force at our walls, one that I am not entirely sure we can stop!"

"Have you tried reasoning with them?" Bastemon asked as she licked whipped cream off of her long claws.

"They didn't open the floor to discussion…" Mephistomon growled, glaring at the voluptuous cat-woman in annoyance. "Or are you as blind as you are useless."

"I saw," Bastemon said quietly, "I saw you get chased from the battlements like a mouse scurrying from a hawk…"

The air shook as a loud cracking sound erupted from the city walls. White alabaster slid down in an avalanche. A gaping hole was in the walls. White, chalky dust rolled down the street, filling the air with irritating haze. A roar rose up as the troops at the wall's breach heralded their courage and charged forward. Mephistomon winced as the hissing, buzzing, howl of the tank beasts' weapons echoed up the street.

"Speaking of the hawk…" Astamon said as he looked over to the wall.

"I was wrong to commandeer your militias," Mephistomon growled angrily as he glared at the red and white cobblestones under his hooves. His horned head bowed. "I need your help."

The four Dons looked at one another and then at Mephistomon.

"I suppose…that counts as an apology, a bad one…but an apology it is…I guess," sighed Phelesmon as he stood up. His black, leather gloved hand reached down and picked up a sharp, long tined pitchfork up off of the ground. "What shall we do?"

"Astamon, Phelesmon, Phantomon and I, shall supplement the forces already engaging the enemy," Mephistomon said with authority. "Bastemon, you're the fastest, you must go to the shelter and nursery, get everyone you can out of here. At best we can stall the invasion. We can't stop it."

The four, seated digimon rose and nodded to Mephistomon. Mephistomon nodded back. Bastemon leapt into the air and then started to leap from one housetop to the next.

"So, we're going in," Astamon snorted as he reached down and opened a violin case, revealing the Tommy gun inside. The pinstriped suited demon rubbed the barrel of the machinegun with the end of the red scarf hanging on his shoulders.

"Yes," Phantomon twirled a heavy ball and chain in one hand and clutched his scythe with the other.

"The Dons of Loto Dell'Ombra ride again, for one, last, great battle," Phelesmon chuckled as the devil pulled at his huge, black, frill-like collar that seemed to surround his head. He lifted his pitchfork with his other hand and thrust it into the air. "They shall tremble as we march into battle!"

"I'll see you in hell," Mephistomon snorted as he walked away from the others, back towards the explosions and stray streaks of laser and plume of black flames.

The other three looked at each other and followed Mephistomon's steps. The Dons of Loto Dell'Ombra marching forward in all their regality, marching in the midmorning sunlight of the final day of the last, great, city-state of Loto Dell'Ombra.

888

Black Gatomon stood in front of the school's door. He rubbed his blue gloved paws in worry as he watched the smoke rolling up from the far end of the city. The assembled Rookies were huddled inside the school. It was the shelter for the city. A nursery was a block or so to the west. A viral Elecmon was protecting the babies. Black Gatomon turned his head and prepared to re-enter the school when something leapt off a roof on the opposite side of the street.

The black furred feline twisted around, flashing its claws. He fell backward as the leaper landed a mere few inches from him. Black Gatomon growled as he hopped back to his feet and growled. He looked up and instantly muted himself as his claws sheathed themselves.

"Mistress, I apologize, I thought…" Black Gatomon stammered as he looked up at the voluptuous, round-chested, wide-hipped female as she rose from her landing crouch.

"There isn't time for that," the woman said sharply as she walked forward, her leopard skinned hips swinging seductively side to side with her black tails sweeping in elegant curls to the left and right. Black Gatomon gulped as she passed him, he felt a warmth flood his cheeks as he watched her walk past with her barely covered body only a few inches from him.

"But, mistress, what are you doing here?" the feline gulped as he looked his mistress's back, irresistibly watching the tone muscles firm and release as she walked.

She turned her head, her ears large, triangular, lynxish ears twitched. A frown was perceived behind the light lavender veil she wore over her face. She snapped her clawed fingers and Black Gatomon jumped to attention.

"We need to get everyone out of here," The woman stated in a frustrated tone. "We're abandoning the city."

"Mistress Bastemon…?" the black cat gulped as he looked at the stern, hazel eyes glaring back at him.

"You can admire me after we're done moving everyone," the woman smirked, "and if you're a good little kitty…."

Black Gatomon's eyes doubled in size and he felt his black cheeks turn a deep crimson. His fur burned like fire from the inside out and he quickly looked down and began staring at the ground. Another wave of explosions shook the city. Black Gatomon looked back.

"Those were closer," the cat turned back to the woman.

"That's why I said we need to do this now," Bastemon stated as she turned from him and pushed on the school doors. "Go the nursery, let's get moving!"

Black Gatomon nodded and saluted and then leapt to action, running on all fours. The nursery wasn't overly far away but it was at least thirteen blocks. He was quick though and running was something he was used to. When he got there he looked at the building. It wasn't very distinguished. It was a red brick building, square with a pink door on its front. Black Gatomon skidded in front of the nursery on the sidewalk and slid to a stop at the front of the pink entrance. He reached up and touched the doorknob. He turned the knob and pulled the door open. A bolt of lightning roared forward smashing into Black Gatomon's chest, nearly throwing him across the street. He growled as he rolled across the cobblestone street. He grunted as he rose and patted the smoking circle on his chest. A purple rat with a fanned set of nine tails was standing in the door way, electricity sparked back and forth from the tips of the rabbit-like ears.

"Dang it, Elecmon!" Black Gatomon snarled as he to his feet. "You're supposed to shoot invaders not me!"

"You should know better than to just open the door to my nursery without announcing yourself!" the rat roared in retort. "Aren't you supposed to be watching the Rookies!?"

"Lady Bastemon came and said we're moving everyone out of the city," Black Gatomon walked up to the rat. "Can you do it?"

"Most of the babies are mobile, yes," Elecmon stated in annoyance, "How far are we going?"

"No idea, but it isn't likely going to be a short walk," The black feline rubbed the back of his head.

Both digimon leapt as an explosion tore into the sky. It was only a few blocks away. They covered their heads as hunks of wood and rock rained down on them.

"We haven't much time," Elecmon snorted as he glared at the cat. "You guys always expect miracles from me…it's like you have no idea how difficult it is to get these babies organized…"

"Yeah, yeah," Black Gatomon grumbled as he started to walk away. "I'll be back with the others."

The rat nodded and turned around and moved back into the nursery. The explosions made the ground shudder under Black Gatomon's feet. Black Gatomon bounded as the explosions became a constant rumble that shook buildings, forcing hunks of ceramic shingles and brick to fall to the ground. Up ahead, he could see Bastemon, surrounded by hundreds of small digimon. Purple, hamster with bat-wing ears, bowling ball bats, hooded gremlins with eyes in the bluish gray flesh of his hands' palms, green goblins with tufts of orange hair and a wooden club, upright standing rabbits with gray fur, yellow furred frog-like creatures with spiked backs, sleepy koalas that were nibbling at their claws nervously and black tyrannosaurs with flat, rectangular snouts, they were all huddled around the voluptuous feline woman. They were flapping wings, shuffling feet and looking around as explosions threw the air into sonic chaos.

"It's about time!" Bastemon shouted as dust and rock rained down around her, precipitating from the most recent explosion.

"Sorry, Elecmon says he can be ready soon," Black Gatomon huffed as he looked up at the woman.

"You mean now," Bastemon stated as she waded through the tides of Rookie digimon.

"Uh…I…" Black Gatomon stammered as he scratched his head.

"Trust me; he means now," Bastemon stated as she lifted on arm and pointed down the street towards the nursery, "All of you, get the heck down that street, meet up with Elecmon. You will assist him in herding the babies out of the city! Go into the mountains! If anyone tries double backing, or fleeing on their own, you won't like it when I find you! GOT IT!?"

"Yes, ma'am!" shouted the hodgepodge of digimon as they huddled down under another shower of dirt and shrapnel.

"Follow Black Gatomon, he'll be your leader, I will watch your backs!" Bastemon shouted as she glared up at the sky.

"Mistress, most assuredly you're more important than I," Black Gatomon mumbled, humbly looking at the ground his ears drooped. "You should be leading the retreat, you should be safe, my mistress…"

"Leaders aren't leaders because they are the most powerful," Bastemon replied turning back to wade to the other end of the ocean of Rookies, "They're leaders because they do what has to be done…"

The black cat looked up and gulped, nodding, "Right, you lot….come with me! I want three lines! Orderly, and gentle, no pushing no shoving, and if we're lucky we may live to see the sunset!"

The Rookies were quick to file into straight lines. Black Gatomon nodded sharply and turned on his heels and started forward. He swiveled his ears to the back and every once in and awhile turned back. The fighting was getting closer. He could hear the clacking rumble of engines fill the air. The sound of wheels crackling over shattered earth. Black Gatomon couldn't look back. They'd already covered several blocks and it was now only a few more blocks and then he'd look back. He'd put Elecmon in charge and go back for Bastemon. He nodded to himself with his plans set.

The sounds got closer. The blaring hisses of lasers, the shouts of warriors and guards giving commands and the screams of warriors and guards dying filled his ears but Black Gatomon stayed resolute, if he showed any fear the others would start to be afraid. He looked up. He could see Elecmon in front of him. Baby digimon were bouncing and floating around the lavender rodent's head. There weren't as many baby digimon as Rookies, the babies usually came on trains from other places. Black Gatomon walked up to the lavender Elecmon.

"You lead the Rookies, take them into the mountains," the black feline looked back. Bastemon was nowhere to be seen.

"Alone?" Elecmon frowned in annoyance.

"No, I will go get Mistress Bastemon," Black Gatomon glared back at the rat. "She is my mistress, I cannot let her down. I'm going back for her. She said she would protect us."

"Fine…" Elecmon grunted as he looked at the babies around him. "Ok, my little shnookems we're going for a walk, so find yourself a Rookie digimon to travel with."

The baby digimon purred and cooed happily and instantly dove for the Rookies. The larger digimon trembled as they looked at the babies. Elecmon walked forward.

"You can do this Elecmon," Black Gatomon whispered as he walked past the rodent and past the lined up Rookies.

"You guys, we're going into the mountains," Elecmon shouted as Black Gatomon continued past the lines of digimon. "Those of you with a baby, must keep close watch of the little tykes, the rest of you will also keep watch of the babies. If we're all very careful and watchful things should go well!"

The black furred feline walked past the last of the Rookies, having nearly walked a couple of blocks. He charged now, running at full speed. He was past the Rookies; he didn't need to keep up decorum. He turned his head back every so often watching the parade of digimon slip around a corner. He turned his head forward and skidded to a stop. Bastemon was standing in front of him, her back to him.

Beyond Bastemon were three digimon, with heavy armored bodies and treaded wheels. A stocky, pyramidal head was affixed to the middle of the chassis. They had their weapons pointed at Bastemon. The cat woman had her arms outstretched as a barrier and her legs held apart as if to sturdy herself.

"You win!" shouted Bastemon loudly to the metal tanks. "Your invasion is a success! We're leaving; you can have the entire city! Just stop this massacre! Stop this war! We surrender!"

"The – pestssss – sur-rrreeeenderrrrr!?" the lead tank nearly sounded as if he was scoffing through the mechanical drawl of his voice. "You – are – surreeeendering?"

"Yes! We only request that you stop killing the innocent digimon!" Bastemon shouted, dropping her arms as she took a step back. "We'll leave. There's no need for anymore killing. No one will attack you, if you promise not to kill anyone else. Accept those terms, and we'll leave in peace…"

"Peeeace?" The lead tank rumbled mechanically as it swiveled around to the tanks behind it. It swiveled back around to Bastemon.

"It's fair, you've proven that you are the superior army," Bastemon stated dropping to one knee and bowing her head. "You are stronger than us, we only request you let us leave…we lost this war."

"It – was – not a WARRRR!" the lead tank shouted cantankerously. Bastemon looked up in shock. The tank rolled forward until it was right in front of Bastemon. Its engine hummed an octave higher. "IT – WAS – A – CLEAN-SING. IT – WAS – THE – RE-MOOOO-VAL OF PESSSTSSSZ! IT WAS AN EXTERRRRRMINATION!" The tank rolled back and pointed its weapons at Bastemon, "YOUR RE-QUESSSZT IS DENIIIIIIED! YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

Black Gatomon lifted his gloved paw to his mouth as the sound of death rays shrieked through the air. The beams struck Bastemon. The woman arched backward and for a brief second he could see the female's skeleton, due to the X-rays released by the tanks' Death Rays. Then Bastemon burned from the inside out until she was ash. Black Gatomon ran forward and clutched at the ash. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the charred remains of his mistress. The dust filtered through his paws and he looked up at the tanks before him.

"She wasn't a threat!" Black Gatomon shouted at the tanks, who just rumbled in place. "She was prostrate before you, crying for the safety of others! She just wanted to protect the innocent! She said you were superior! She admitted our defeat! You didn't need to kill her! You aren't superior! The superior one would've let her go!"

"We – know – we – are – suuuupeeeriiiiorrrr! YOU ARE IN-FEEE-RI-ORRRR!" announced the lead tank. "WE DID NOT NEED HER ALIVE! SHE WAS IN-FE-RIIII-ORRR! SHE WAS EXTERMINATED!" The tank nearly wobbled in its growing, fury-filled rant and then it was silent for a second. The cannons pointed down. "Just – azz – you – will – beeeeee!"

Black Gatomon gulped, taking a step back.

"Stay – where – you - are!" shouted the tank loudly. "You – will – beee EXTERMINATED!"

"EXTERMINATE!" shouted the tank to the left as its weapons pointed at Black Gatomon.

"EXTERMINATE!" the tank on the right targeted him as well.

"EXTERMINATE!" the lead tank roared as it rolled forward.

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERRRRMMMMINAAAAAATE!" the three tanks opened fire, chanting loudly.

Black Gatomon leapt backward as the ground before him turned into molten goo. He spun around as the lasers fired a second barrage this time they zapped left and right melting the street around Black Gatomon. Black Gatomon leapt forward. The world around him turned into a negative. Reds became blues, blues became lavender-reds and all of a sudden everything seemed to be thinner like he had X-ray vision. He burned and then fell and then nothing.

888

"Why are you doing this?" Beelzemon was on his feet again. He had to stretch his legs, after lying on that cot in the small lab Wisemon had made for himself in the priest hole. "You could've killed me, fed on my data, became a great power…"

"You are my lord, Beelzemon," Wisemon spoke quietly. The robed wizard turned, the long, tattered, brown cloth that hung and concealed his body flowed with his movement. His eyes glowed out from under the beige shawl that covered his head. "As some say, there is honor amongst the thieves. The same is true of demons and viral digimon. I wish to see you rise once again to your former rank."

"I get it," Beelzemon smirked, shaking his head. "I take up my old position and you get a bit of land as a thank you."

"No, I am fully aware that you'd gobble up everything," Wisemon whispered turning back to the work desk he'd been endless endeavoring over. The candles were slowly melting away and their flames flickered even more. "I believe though, that things were better for us as a whole when the demon lords were in power. It's my duty to help reestablish that situation. Loto Dell'Ombra has fallen from grace. We used to be one of the most feared city-states in the region and now we're nothing. We sit here behind the veil of Shadowbane Forest, cut off from the world…decadent, corrupt and rotten to the core…"

"What do you expect of a civilization built up on gluttony and dark intentions," Beelzemon quizzed the wizard, putting his clawed hands on his hips. "Can't exactly demand nobility and virtue."

"I was expecting a burgeoning empire, hungry to have its coffers filled," Wisemon replied quietly. "I was expecting us to be a lion that would consume everything…and instead we're a pack of hyenas whimpering and yipping at the edge of the forest, snapping at the sick and snatching scraps off of dead corpses."

"I have a feeling that you want the dragons to come here," Beelzemon looked at the back of Wisemon's head.

"Sometimes to save the tree, you have to prune away the diseased branches," Wisemon returned without any semblance of regret or sympathy. "Those in power would remain in power, nothing from within could shake them apart…"

"So, you dragged me all the way back to the chateau," Beelzemon grinned, bemusedly. "I was never nearby…until you brought me here."

"Near enough," Wisemon stated quietly as he turned to the demon lord. "I could sense you, but you were hundreds of miles away. It took a day to get you here…as I returned I heard that the Great Dragons were back. I knew they'd look for you, their little pet that they kept in a cage for oh so long…I fetched you, and sent my men away. I told them to hide, to keep low for a month or so, until I signaled them."

"Because you didn't want them in the crossfire when the dragons came," Beelzemon was truly smiling now, shaking his head. He smiled and looked back up at Wisemon. "You're a despicable little snot…"

"The Dragons will purify the city," Wisemon stated clenching the front of his robes as if he had lapels. "They'll root out those corrupt old fools. The dusty, decadent senators that want to feast on the fruits of their laziness and drink of seclusion's sour wine, they'd be cut off of our prosperous tree. Then, you'd rise to power and with the backing of my men we could start reclaiming that which is ours, take back our dignity and throw aside the veil of the Shadowbane Forest."

"Throw aside the veil to see the Digital World laid waste to by the Great Dragons," Beelzemon interjected. "You're an immense idiot. It was crafty, I'll give you that, luring the dragons here with the scent of me…but hey, the dragons would've came here anyways…just to check the chateau, but now you've sealed your fate. You see the dragons won't stop at just finding me, no, they'll kill anyone who is harboring me…as well."

"If it comes to that," Wisemon said, his golden eyes narrowed. "Then I'll just have to bargain with the dragons."

"They won't bargain," Beelzemon warned turning around and sitting on the cot across the room from Wisemon's table. He crossed his legs. "They don't need to."

"They will, if they want you so bad," Wisemon swept around and slammed his hands hard against the tabletop. "I can hide you. They'll never find you if I hide you…"

"Don't be stupid," Beelzemon snorted, uncrossing his legs. "Don't you see, you should run. Get out of here, let them find me…I need to talk to the fearsome threesome anyways."

"No, you must be here, to take the reigns of the city-state!" Wisemon twirled around clenching his clawed hands into a fist. "To rise up against the dragons! To take over the World!"

"Nope!" Beelzemon chirped, rising to his feet. "I'm one demon lord, against three dragons. And the last time I got pissed at them and sent a shot over their bow, I spent a lot of years locked in a cage and spent far too many more as a little, half-pint squirt. I'm not doing that again. Not for you, not for Loto Dell'Ombra…"

Wisemon fumed angrily glaring at the demon lord. He lifted a claw and crooked the finger. "I have waited for too long…listened to those idiots down there…too long. I won't have my only chance of reinvigorating Loto Dell'Ombra be dashed by your…"

Wisemon stopped and closed his eyes. His finger fell with his arm as he clenched his fists to his sides.

"What's happening?" Beelzemon asked as he watched the wizard.

"Someone's come to the chateau…someone who's pretty good at ethereal projection," Wisemon snorted. "I'll be back!"

"Famous last words," Beelzemon stated as Wisemon glided toward the adjacent wall of the room. Beelzemon walked after the phantasmal wizard as he pressed a button on the wall. It slid open revealing a larger library beyond.

"What are you doing?" Wisemon snorted as he glared back at Beelzemon. Wisemon entered the library.

"My chateau…" Beelzemon replied, following Wisemon, "So…none of your business."

Beelzemon sighed as he walked down the grimy halls. It was obvious very few people had been here since he had used the chateau. The bookshelves were nearly empty, most of the contents were on the floor torn open or left to be molded over and consumed by fungi. It was dank and musty and webs from spiders draped the walls. Streams of light poured through the broken skylight. A blue sky was peering down on him. He could hear the explosions. They were closer now.

Wisemon was hovering in front of a pair of once grand doors that were hanging limply from their hinges. Wisemon heaved the doors out of his way, letting them clatter in a deep wooden tone. Some dust wafted up, but most of it was contained by the smothering humidity in the room.

Beelzemon sighed as he looked at the library. He never was a reader and the library was as much about having the books than actually reading them, but it was still a little unnerving to see it in this much disrepair. His black wings twitched as he walked to the mantle of a fireplace in the library. There was a photograph, the glass covering the photo was cracked and bits of mold had started to digest the photographic paper. It was a black and white photograph, though the white portions had been discolored to a creamy yellow. Seven digimon stood in the photo, or rather six digimon and the snout and face of a seventh.

Beelzemon put a claw on the middle most digimon. He had golden hair and the shape of a human with bestial white paws. Twelve wings; half were angelic and half were black and leathery, surrounded his black and white suited body. Next to the twelve winged digimon was a beast, with heavy bat-wings on its muscular body. Its head and snout were like that of a canine but it had tightly back-curved horns on its head. Its heavy hands had greenish energy claws. On the other side of the angelic demon digimon was a huge red scaled face. Just the snout and head of the beast was visible, its size dwarfing all around. In front of the three demons, four more digimon were standing. The left most made him smirk; it was him, but he didn't have the wings. He was standing bored and was actually looking off camera. Next to him was an old man with a sharp pointed nose. A red and blue poncho with concentric, triangular-fringed circles was draped over his twiggy figure. Next to the old man to the right was a voluptuous woman. She wore a long, black dress. Her bodice was tautly tied against her curved body. Her arms were crossed over her ample bosom. Finally on the far right was a cowled digimon. Large bat wings were folded tightly against his red robes. A pair of cobalt eyes glared out of the hood of the cowl.

"This picture," Beelzemon shook his head, "It was the last time we were ever together all at once…"

There was a disruption outside, shouts. Beelzemon lifted his head and turned dropping the picture. He ran out of the library and stood in the great entrance hall. The door to the outside was splintered and a gaping hole was in its heavy wooden surface. Beelzemon walked slowly forward and peered through the hole.

Wisemon was standing out on the rocky front lawn. He wasn't alone though; in front of the brown robed magician was a hulking beast. It was a cross between a dog and an ape. It had the wide chest and hairless chest of an ape but the head of a round headed dog complete with floppy ears attached to the side of its head. Its arms were long and heavy like an ape's and its legs were short and stocky but its feet were pawed like a dog's.

"What are you doing here, Endigomon?" Wisemon shouted angrily up at the beast.

"The…Marstar, wants to see you Wisemon," the beast said in a slow, drawl that seemed to suggest limited speaking capability or just plain stupidity. "The city needs help, bad guys are comin'."

"I'm busy, leave me alone!" Wisemon snorted angrily.

"Come with me!" whimpered the beast. "The marstar doesn't like it when I don't get what he wants…"

"Your master needs to learn he doesn't get everything he wants!" Wisemon shouted back. "I'm going nowhere!"

"Come with me! Come with me! Come with me!" the beast started to dance side to side lifting one foot and then another. Its arms swung in time to the demands. "Come with me! Come with me! Come with me!"

"NO!" Wisemon shouted angrily. "I'm not going!"

"COME WITH ME!" the beast roared, suddenly stopping the dance.

One of Endigomon's arms rose up and fired forward the joints had flesh like rippled tubing and extended much further than expected. The clawed hand smashed Wisemon to the ground. Wisemon responded with clawed swipe across the beast's chest. Streaks of blue energy tailed the claws and crackled against the beast's chest. Endigomon jerked backward, leaping backward with the nimbleness of a cat. Wisemon crawled away and put himself upright. Endigomon was whimpering as he rubbed his chest.

Wisemon turned towards the massive beast. "Such a blubbering baby. You are the perfect example of everything wrong with the city-state. It's become a big, fat, blubbering baby!"

"Marstar said not to hurt you," the beast whimpered sniffling, "I sorry, but the barrier…it make me crazy…I try to find way 'round it…I sorry…"

"Bah!" Wisemon snorted, angrily. "Doesn't matter, you're insufferable! Why don't you just go away?"

"But Marstar…" Endigomon huffed.

"Your master is dead!" Wisemon shouted. He pointed out of Beelzemon's frame of vision. "See the city burning! The explosions….there's nothing left, your master is dead! All the masters are dead, but me!"

"Marstar…dead?" The beast gulped. "Marstar is dead?"

"Yeah, he's gone, nothing's left…" Wisemon said it with far too much pleasure.

Beelzemon furrowed his brow. The quiet background was now filled with an understated rumbling. Beelzemon narrowed his eyes. He knew that sound, a low, pounding rumble like a heavy engine. He strained his ears as he listened.

"Marstar dead…it my fault…should've been here fastar," Endigomon was whimpering as he wobbled left and right. "Marstar dead…Marstar dead…Marstar dead…"

"Oh stop blubbering!" Wisemon shouted.

The background rumbling got louder and then was accompanied by the sound of pebbles crackling, and then there were the voices. Beelzemon instantly knew what was coming.

"Non-draaaa-mon – life-forms – deee-tected!" the voice screeched angrily. Wisemon backed up slowly but Endigomon was still weaving back and forth chanting to himself. The rumbling got louder and then stopped. "Exterminate!"

Energy beams came from the right, striking Endigomon. The beast wretched and then exploded into data. Wisemon continued to retreat back as the creatures came into view. They were tanks with triangular prism heads decorated to look like the heads of dragons were attached to their heavy armored bodies. Their belt-like wheels snatched at the ground tossing dust and rocks back as they turned to face Wisemon. A pair of energy cannons pointed at the phantom sorcerer.

"This – one – is not – Beeee-elzemon!" announced one of the three tanks that flanked the lead.

"It – is – not a – draaagon!" the screechy voice of the other flanking tank announced.

"What the heck are you!?" Wisemon shouted as he looked at the tanks rolling into place.

"Tankdramon," Beelzemon whispered to himself as he watched them roll to a stop.

"OUR DESIGNATION IS NOT IMPORTANT TO YOUUU!" The right tank screechingly howled. "THIS ONE IS AN INFEERRRIOR BEING!"

"IT – WILL – BEEE – EX-TERRRMMMINATED!" the lead tank shouted. The energy cannons whined as they took on energy.

"No!" Wisemon shouted putting his hands out. "You're looking for Beelzemon, right?"

The whine the energy cannons faded and the tanks were silent for a while.

"A-ffffirmmm-a-tive," stated the lead tank, loudly.

"I know where he is," Wisemon haughtily laughed, clapping his hands together in glee. "And, and if you want to find him, you can't kill me!"

"A-LERT A-LERT!" the left flanking tank screeched. "BEEEE-ELZEMON'S LIFE SIGNATURE HAS BEEN DEEETECTED!"

Beelzemon smirked slightly as he saw Wisemon's shoulders slump. The wizard wasn't done yet, because, as if by struck by lightning, he stood straight again and lifted a hand into the air.

"AH, but only I know precisely where he is!" Wisemon shouted, loudly. He pointed a clawed finger at the Tankdramon, "I've put up a barrier; even your sensors will be disrupted! And I've thoroughly explored this chateau. It'll take you days maybe weeks to navigate all the priest holes, trap doors, and secret passages. That's to say you'd find him, he could move freely within the walls of the house and out fox you for months, or simply leave while you are investigating…leaving you at stage one of your search…"

Beelzemon shook his head as he laughed internally at the thought of him hiding in his chateau for days or months. He looked up though and the tanks hadn't shot Wisemon, yet.

"You – will – give – us – the – in-form-a-tion!" the tanks snarled in unison. "We – may – consider – let-ting – you - surrr-vive."

"Well, that's more like it," Wisemon laughed as he put his hands on his hips, victoriously.

"TELL US!" shouted the lead tank. "YOU HAVE TWEN-TY SECONDS!"

"What!? No, no…" Wisemon stammered slightly as he backed away. "You get the info on my terms!"

"NEGATIVE!" the lead tank screeched, rolling forward. "TELL US! FIFTEEN SECONDS!"

"I'm not going to just tell you!" Wisemon retorted leaning forward aggressively in the face of the mechanical beast. "I have to have assurances!"

"NO MORE TERMMMS! TELL USSSSZ!" the energy cannons on the tank whined to life. "TEN SECONDS! NINE SECONDS!"

"Back off!" shouted Wisemon as he pushed his hands forward. "I'm not saying a word!"

"YOU WILL COMPLYYY! O-BEY OR ELSZZZE!" roared the lead Tankdramon. A bead of light formed at the tip of its energy cannon. "FIVE SECONDS!"

Beelzemon decided. He reached up and pulled at the door. The heavy wooden barrier fell off its hinges in his hands. The Tankdramon swiveled around and pointed their cannons at Beelzemon. He instantly put his hands up.

"A-LERT! A-LERT!" chimed the left flanking Tankdramon, the lights on its metal head blinking madly as it swiveled around to face Beelzemon. "IT IS BEEE-ELZEMON!"

"Hey, you came," Beelzemon said with a big smile as he walked forward, his hands forward. "I see Goddramon's been at work again? What do you think of the craftsmanship, Wisemon? Bit clunky and squawky, eh? Of course…Goddramon never was all that good at this sort of thing."

"DO NOT IN-SULT US!" shrieked the lead Tankdramon. "DO NOT IN-SULT OUR CREEEE-ATORRRR!"

"SUCH ACTIONS ARE BLASZZZ-PHEMYYYY!" screeched the Tankdramon on the right.

"DO NOT BLAZZZZ-PHEEEEEEME!" howled the left Tankdramon.

"WE ARE THE SUUUUPEEEERIOR BEEEEINGS!" the lead Tankdramon announced with every bit of venomous haughtiness his synthetic voice could muster. "YOU WILL SURR-RENDER! YOU WILL BE REEETURRRNED TO THE GODS! YOU WILLL BEEEE SIFTED OF ALL USEFUL INFORMATION! AND THEN YOU WILL BE EX-TERRRRMMMMINATED!"

"And him?" Beelzemon pointed to Wisemon.

"He will be de-stroyed, soooon," the lead Tankdramon replied with all the interest of a fish to a glass of water.

Beelzemon turned his head to the giant cloud of smoke hovering in the air. He walked forward. The Tankdramon screeched to him about remaining in his position and not moving but he ignored them. They weren't going to shoot. He looked down from the edge of plateau his chateau had been built on. Loto Dell'Ombra was a burning crater. The forests surrounding it were nothing more than charcoal and ash. Nothing was moving except Tankdramon, moving like soldier ants, hunting down whatever had survived their initial raid.

Beelzemon turned back to the Tankdramon. They had their weapons trained on him. Wisemon was trying to back away slowly.

"So, you did that?" Beelzemon jerked his head back indicating the city in the valley.

"We – pur-i-fiiied – the – city," The lead Tankdramon admitted calmly. "They – did – not – provide – much – re-sis-tance. We – taught – them – how – to – diiiiie, and – they – were – quick - stuuu-dieees!"

"You killed them all then…the women, children, babies…warriors, guards, surrendering and fighting…" Beelzemon looked back down at the charred ghost of the once great city-state.

"They – were – all – in-feeeeriiiior," replied the Tankdramon as if it was commonsense. "They – all – were – ex-terrrrminaated!"

"You left one," Beelzemon stated as he turned. Beelzemon pointed to Wisemon who was now turned and was moving relatively quickly away from the scene, "and he's getting away…"

"DO – NOT – MOOOOVE!" screeched the Tankdramon as it turned around. "STAY – WHERE – YOU – ARRRRE!"

Wisemon froze and slowly turned. His golden eyes glared at Beelzemon.

"I told you," Beelzemon whispered. "This was a bad idea. You should've been helping the retreat, not promoting the deaths of thousands. Even for me, this is despicable and I was the Great Demon Lord of Gluttony. I fed on countless beings, but even I had the decency to kill them on my own. My strength comes from my own work, not on the work of an outside force…"

"You fool, they'll just kill you," Wisemon shouted. "You put in all this effort, freeing the Great Dragons, talking like you've got a plan and you're just going to let them kill you…"

"Ah, but they'll kill you first," Beelzemon replied, "and I can live with that."

"CEASE THE IN-TER-PER-SON-AL – COMMMM-MUUUUUNICATIONS!" screeched the lead Tankdramon as its metal armor nearly trembled in anticipation.

"I can give you information!" Wisemon shouted holding his hands out. "You'll lose a lot of useful information if you kill me! I can do a lot of things for you! I may have even better info than Beelzemon!"

"YOU – ARE – NOT – NEEEEED-ED!" announced the lead Tankdramon. "EXTERMINATE!"

Wisemon yelped as his body was eradicated by six well-targeted death rays. The tanks instantly swiveled around and faced Beelzemon.

"Alright, let's go," Beelzemon sighed as he walked forward. "I need to talk to the Great Dragons anyways."

"You – arrre – surr-rrend-errr-ing?" the lead Tankdramon's voice was filled with the query and Beelzemon could just imagine the dragon inside the head chassis scratching its scalp.

"Yes, like I said, 'I need to talk to the Great Dragons'," Beelzemon responded. "So come on, let's get on with it. Take me to your leaders…"

"You – willll – walk – in – front of usssz!" announced the lead Tankdramon as Beelzemon walked past him. The tanks turned around. "You – will – not – look baaaack! You – willl – not – ruuun! You – will – o-bey – all – com-mands!"

"Yeah, yeah, no sudden movements, no reaching for guns, no running away," Beelzemon sighed as he looked forward at the trail ahead of him. "I told you I was surrendering and that I want to go. Jeesh, you gotta trust some people sometimes."

"Your – surrr-rend-er – is – con-firrrmed," replied the voice of the lead Tankdramon. "Our – search – is – com-plete. We – are – a-head of – sche-dule. It – is – as – our – gods – have – said!"

"Oh and what have your 'gods' said?" Beelzemon grimaced slightly.

"They – an-ti-ci-pated – a – quick – sur-rrrender!" The Tankdramon obliged, arrogantly. "They – said – the – De-mon – Lords – were – weak. You –sur-rend-er – fast – and – die – faaaasterrrr!"

"Oh, I can handle you killing a lot of innocent little digimon, for your senseless cause," Beelzemon clenched his fists, "I can even get over that squawky little voice and your annoying sense of superiority is even ignorable, but…" Beelzemon spun around and faced the three Tankdramon in front of him. He lifted his right arm and a plasma cannon morphed around his lower arm and hand, "…you dare say that my brothers and sisters are a bunch of sniveling, weakling, cowards…I get torqued! You don't mess with the family, comprende!?"

"YOU ARE TAKING HOSTILE ACTIONS!" screeched the three Tankdramon. Their energy cannons whined into action. "WE _WILL_ DEFEND OUR-SELVES!"

"Go ahead…make my day…" Beelzemon grunted in annoyance. "I can find the Great Dragons myself."

"IN-CA-PACITATE HIM!" shouted the lead Tankdramon as he leveled his energy cannons at Beelzemon. "FIRE!"

Beelzemon opened his wings and took off as the energy beams sliced under his feet. The Tankdramon instantly pointed their energy cannons upwards. Beelzemon snarled as energy bolts struck his shoulders and wings. Several more struck his chest and stomach. He felt his body curling up into a ball. He may have been a Mega digimon but he still was injured.

He felt his body falling as his wings curled inward. The ground smashed upwards into him. His muscles yanked at his bones and tore at each other as they tried to all contract at once. He looked up as the Tankdramon rumbled forward. The metallic head hissed as steam escaped it. The upper section of the 'head' lifted and a blue skinned torso rose up from its retracted position within. Its draconic body was unmistakable. The organic dragons within the tanks leaned forward and reached for him with their slimy blue arms. They dragged his convulsing form up onto the front of their tank bodies.

"The – tar-get – is – sub-dued," the gurgling, mechanically enhanced voice of one of the dragons said.

"Ad-vance – to – the ha-ven of the - Godssss!" another voice shouted.

"TANK-DRA-MON – ARE – SUPREME!" chanted the third voice.

The head casings of the tanks slid back down as the dragons retracted into their metal abode.

"SEEENDING COM-MUUUUN-ICATIONS TO OTHER UNITS! BEELZEMON IS CAP-TURED! ALL HAIL THE DRAGONS! THE DRAGONS ARE SUPREME!" Announced the lead dragon as its engines rumbled to life.

Beelzemon felt the shudder as the Tankdramon moved forward. He winced as his body cramped again. He felt the tank move as he laid, immobile, on the front of the lead tank's chassis. They may have won this little scrape but he smirked inwardly, knowing that their defeat would come.

888

"What could've done something like this?" Miyako asked quietly as she looked down from Aquilamon.

She looked over to Ken who was riding on the back of Stingmon. The dark haired boy shook his head.

"All we know is that there used to be a city-state here," Takeru shouted from Pegasusmon's back. "A holdover from when the Demon Lords were in power…"

"None the less, to see this is horrible," Hikari whispered looking down from Nefertimon.

Iori, Armadillomon and Koushiro moved forward on the back of Kabuterimon.

"The dragons did this in the morning, according to what reports we have, they moved in sometime after midnight and systematically started destroying grids of the forest," Koushiro shouted over the loud buzzing coming from Kabuterimon's wings.

"Then they did the same to the city," Hikari whispered looking down. "It's a good thing Daisuke had to go with his parents to get a family photo taken…he'd have demanded to hunt them down."

"They are already long gone, they went up through the mountains," Nefertimon spoke. Everyone looked up and saw a trail of destruction that wormed its way into the mountains to a chateau.

"The city-state fell a little after noon," Iori whispered. "We were eating lunch and the digimon here were dying."

"There's nothing more to see here," Ken stated. The others looked at the dark haired boy in surprise. Ken looked up. "The force that did this is probably already getting ready for their next strike. It will do no good to dwell on this."

"That's kind of cold, isn't it?" Miyako shouted from her perch on Aquilamon's back.

"These things that attacked are obviously uncaring," Ken replied as he looked down at the ash being swirled up by the crosswind. "I don't want them hurting anyone else. As such we should go back and make a strategy for fighting them, or at least send out a warning."

"Oh…well, yeah," Miyako said half heartedly.

"Then let's get back home," Takeru called sweeping his hand up and waving it, calling everyone to turn around. "We can contact some of our digimon friends and put out a warning, and we can tell the others about this."

The group of five flying digimon curled around and flew away from the dusty remains of the Shadowbane Forest and Loto Dell'Ombra. The sunlight was slowly dipping below the mountains to the west, casting a long shadow over the ashes.

**888**


	11. The Battle Across the Breach

**I don't own digimon or Tankdramon's (evo line) characterization….**

**The Battle Across the Breach**

**888**

It was just before dawn. The waves were washing up on the soft sands of File Island. The sands were dark from the dawn's twilight. The waves swirled suddenly as a behemoth serpent rose out of the water. It had blocky armor the shimmered blue and gold against the twilight. A blunted horn was at the tip of its squared-off snout. Its head fell down and landed on the sand. It opened its mouth and extended its tongue.

"For-ward – MARCH!" screeched a shrill scream.

Heavily armored, cybernetic, bipedal dragons marched out of the gigantic sea serpent's mouth. Twenty-seven of the beasts marched out onto the sand in three phalanxes. Each phalanx was three rows long and each row had three in it. They drove heavy spears into the sand. Behind the three phalanxes rolled three heavy tanks.

"Uuu-nit – 0-1 – will – ex-aaaa-mine – the – ruuuu-ins," the lights that topped the triangular tops on their chassis blinked in time with the screeching syllables. "Uuu-nit – 0-2 – will – eeee-limmmm-naaaate – is-land - deee-fenses! Uuu-nit – 0-3 – will – proceed – to – the – Pri-mary – Vill-aaage – and re-trieve the da-ta con-den-saaation corrre!"

"We – O-BEY!" announced the bipedal dragons, saluting. The dragons then started to march forward with the tanks following them. As they left the beach the sea serpent slipped back into the ocean, disappearing under the waves.

From behind a number of bushes two figures hopped out upon the sand. One was a twisted headed creature with long arms. The other creature rode atop the first, it was a pink mouse.

"I think we should tell someone," the mouse yelped. "Quickly, Sukamon, let's get to Toy Town and warn Monzaemon."

"Uh…ok, Chuumon," the twisted headed creature nodded scratching its head. "Which way's Toy Town?"

"Gah, that way!" yelped the mouse pointing to the left. "Come on!"

"Ok…" Sukamon chirped as he bounced away to his left.

888

"_Keiko. " the voice was in her head. She could hear it pleading in the darkness of the void. "Keiko, hurry, something's wrong…" _

"_What's wrong?" Keiko asked to the darkness. A circle of light appeared in the darkness and an egg appeared. Its white body was decorated with lavender stars. Keiko moved forward in the darkness. "What's going on?"_

"_I need you, Keiko…" whispered the voice. "Please, come!" _

Keiko leapt up in her bed. She stared out into the morning shadows of her room. She looked down at the D-3 that laid on her bed stand. It was chirping with activity. She reached over and picked it up.

"I have to talk to Ken," Keiko turned and slid out of bed. She ran over to her desk and picked up her D-terminal. She flipped the little messaging machine open and quickly started to type at it. She looked at her D-3 and the watched as the glowing screen depicted an egg on it shaking, "Don't worry, I'm coming."

888

Ken walked out of the shower rubbing his wet hair with a towel. He hung the towel over his shoulders. He walked across the hall and opened his bedroom door. He quickly padded into his door and closed it behind him. He walked over to his dresser where his clothes for the day were laid out. He untied the loose knot he'd made in the towel he'd wrapped around his waist. He quickly got dressed as he heard the small beeping of his D-terminal. He was slipping a dark blue T-shirt over his head as he walked over to his desk and opened the center drawer where he kept his D-3 and D-terminal.

"Minomon where are you?" Ken called out as he flicked the D-terminal open. He sighed quietly and smiled. The small grub peeked over the edge of his bed down at him.

"What is it, Ken?" asked the bug in one of the cutest and most innocent voices Ken could imagine. "It's Sunday, I thought you were going to sleep in…"

"No such luck," Ken smiled up at Minomon, "Keiko, says she had a dream about Salamon, she said that Salamon called to her…"

"That's great!" Minomon hopped off of the bed and Ken caught the little grub.

"So I think we'll go with Keiko today to File Island and get Salamon's digi-egg," Ken quickly typed an answer, single-handedly, back to Keiko. Minomon hopped up on Ken's shoulder. Ken smiled at the grub and walked out of the room. He took in a deep breath of frying eggs and sausage. He could hear his mother humming in the kitchen and the rustle of his father's newspaper. He walked along the short corridor into the living room.

"Hey sport!" His father chirped, the man's cherubic face beamed with a wide smile.

"Good morning, Ken," his mother bustled out with a plate of toast. "The eggs are nearly done…dear."

"Actually, I think I'll just take a few slices of toast," Ken said as he walked up to checker-clothed table and picked up four slices of toasted bread.

He adeptly laid the bread out on the tablecloth and snatched up a jar of jelly with the knife in it in one single move. He speared on the purple gel and then scooped up the slices of bread, giving one to Minomon. The grub eagerly snatched the toast and instantly started consuming the jelly loaded bread.

"Takeru called while you were in the shower, Ken," Ken's father said off-handedly. Ken looked up at his father, who'd resumed reading his paper, "he said something about a meeting of some sort at that Izumi Koushiro's…"

"I can't," Ken said as he took a bite of grape jellied toast. He licked his upper lip where a glob of the purple jelly had affixed itself. "I kind of already have plans…sort of…"

"Oh?" Ken's mother poked her head out of the kitchen. "What kind of plans?"

"Well, Keiko sent me a message this morning," Ken started as he lifted another piece of toast up to Minomon, who was licking his hands.

Ken's father's paper lowered slightly enough to let the man give his son a mischievous look. "Well, have I met this, Keiko?"

"I have," Ken's mother stated disappearing back into the kitchen. She came out with a plate topped with scrambled eggs. She put it on the table, "She's one of Ken's Digital World friends…she's kind of cute."

"Mom!" Ken blushed brightly as he nearly choked on a hunk of dry toast. He coughed trying to readjust the toast in his throat.

"Thataboy!" Ken's father cheered. He beamed happily at his son.

"She had a bit of a disaster…her partner, this cute kitten digital creature was in an accident," Ken's mother continued as she turned around and bustled back into the kitchen.

"An accident?" Ken's father looked at his son.

"Yeah, that's why I'm meeting her," Ken said as he broke a piece of toast off and fed it to Minomon, who'd inhaled his second piece of toast. "We're going to the Digital World to this special place where digimon are reborn…" Ken rubbed the back of his head. "It's hard to explain. Anyways I promised to go with her, and she sent me a message saying that her partner contacted her."

"Do you want me to call Takeru then to tell him you won't be at the meeting?" Ken's mother walked out of the kitchen carrying a plate with sausages on it.

"Ken, I'm still kind of hungry," Minomon whimpered.

Ken grabbed some more toast and even a couple of sausages and slowly fed them to the little grub as he snacked on one or two of his own.

"It shouldn't take that long," Ken said as he ate the last sausage he'd snatched. "But then again, you never know…"

"I'll call him just in case," Ken's mother sat down and smiled up to her son, "You better get going, wouldn't want to leave Keiko waiting."

Ken nodded and smiled at his parents, "I'll be back later today, depends if I get a hold of Daisuke and the others. Love you Mom and Dad…"

"Have a nice trip, Ken," Ken's mother blew him a kiss. His father waved and then resumed reading his paper.

"It's so nice," Ken heard his mother say to his father as Ken shut the door behind him. "He has so many friends now…"

"Yes, dear, he's become quite the young man," his father said with a cheerful voice as he rustled his newspaper.

Ken lightly jogged to his elevator. The door gently opened with a ping and he stepped in. He gently brushed his hands on his jeans as he looked at the buttons. His fingers were greasy from the sausage and he wiped them on his blue jeans. He shook his still, slightly moist dark hair as he pressed the button for the ground floor. The small cabinet shook as the tethers it hung by moved. A few minutes passed and he felt the floor jerk up under his feet and the closet pinged again. The doors slid open. He walked down a corridor with beige walls and to a door. He opened the door and he was outside. The streets were yet relatively calm, it was only eight or nine and it was Sunday. He walked down the sidewalk easily weaving through the sparser than usual stream of people. She told him to meet her at a park about six blocks from his house.

People looked at Minomon as he walked past. Ken gave the little grub a sidelong look and gently cupped him into his arms and hugged him close. Normal people without digimon were still very ignorant to many things. Most of them didn't equate the small bug in the pine cone with the attacks enacted a year earlier, which made things a little easier for him and the other digi-destined since most people simply ignored their partner's In-Training forms. There were a few people though, usually family members of people with digimon or friends of people with digimon, the kind of people who knew enough to see the connection but ignorant enough to draw the wrong conclusions. He'd never had problems with people but he'd heard that some of the children had been harassed by their neighbors or by bullies, some even having their families kicked out of their apartments.

Keiko's parents were on the edge. They neither acknowledged nor denied their child's partner, and since Keiko's partner's deletion, her mother had become more and more interested in the Digital World, to the point of talking extensively with Ken about it after he'd finished talking to Keiko. Ken liked to think that it was this that had had caused Keiko to finally overcome the depression that had swallowed her for the last month. He stopped at a street corner. The park was across the street. He waited for the light to change.

The light shifted from stop to go and he waited for the traffic to pass and then carefully sprinted across the street. He walked along the brick wall that hemmed in the park and came to a gate. He opened the gate and walked along the asphalt path that wound further into the park. He came upon a set of benches made of composite rocks, cement mixed with different pebbles.

Ken saw Keiko. She was with a group of kids. She had a red blouse on with a soft blue skirt. There were four other kids with her, two girls and two boys. He recognized three of them, they were Dark Spore children. One was Noriko, the small little girl with dark hair and eyes. She had a small, brown ball of fur with a forward curved horn on its head. Noriko sat on the bench with Keiko. Standing directly behind Noriko, was a young man, he was maybe a year younger than Daisuke. He had dark brown hair and was wearing a heavy jean jacket. A pink bulb with a tiny flower on its head was sitting on top of the boy's hair. A younger boy was sitting in front of Noriko; he looked like he was Iori's age. Curly, brown hair covered his head. He had a green shirt on and was wearing a pair of jeans like Ken was. A Tokomon was bouncing in his lap. The last child was a young woman; she looked as if she was Miyako's age. She was wearing a white fronted T-shirt with blue sleeves and a pair of jeans with a belt tightly affixed to her waist. She had red hair pulled up into a tight, spiky bulb.

Keiko jumped to her feet as she saw Ken approach.

"I was worried you wouldn't come," Keiko said with soft puppy dog eyes looking at Ken mournfully. Her long, straight hair slightly fell over her eyes.

"I'm sorry, but my parents," Ken said with a smile. "You shouldn't have worried though I said I was coming; I keep my word."

"I know," Keiko shifted uneasily from one foot to another. She was holding a briefcase like backpack, it looked like laptop carrier.

"Uh, so…you're not alone," Ken stated as he looked at the others that were around the bench.

"Oh, yeah," Keiko snapped out of malaise and turned around and extended an arm to Noriko, "You already know Noriko…and her partner, Tsunomon." She pointed to the boy in the jean jacket, "This is Hiroshi and his partner Yokomon," She pointed to the younger lad. "And this is Takashi and his partner Tokomon…" she turned to the red haired girl, "And this is my cousin, Ruki…She's going to be watching the computer while we're gone…" Keiko turned around and smiled, "Don't worry, she's ok, she even has a digimon partner…"

Ken noticed the digivice attached to the girl's hip. He looked up at the girl's blue eyes, "You didn't need to leave your partner at home…"

"She's not at home," The girl replied as she looked up into a tree across the path and nodded. Ken turned around but he didn't see anything in the tree, though he could've sworn he saw the branch shimmy for no apparent reason.

"We're the last of the Dark Spore children in Tokyo," Takashi said as he stood up. "The others' parents thought that it was unsafe here…so they all moved everywhere…"

"Setsuna's parents moved to Okinawa," Noriko nodded in agreement.

"Inari's went north," said Hiroshi quietly as he looked down. "The others all just kind of dispersed in all directions…"

"Can't really blame them," Ruki said in a disaffected way. "Their kids got kidnapped by digimon…and a psycho…"

Ken frowned slightly at the red-head's bluntness but shook it off. He looked at Keiko, "Well, I suspect we should get going…"

"Right," Keiko nodded and kneeled down in front of the bench and lifted the computer tote up and laid it on the seat. She unzipped the tote and took the computer out. They sat around waiting for the computer to boot up and then after a few quick clicks, Keiko stood up with a smile, "We're ready to go…are you sure you don't want to come with us, Ruki?"

"No thanks, plus what if someone snatched the computer, you'd be stuck there and your mom and dad would be pretty pissed at you," The red-head circled around the bench as the Dark Spore children got up and stood in front of the computer. Ruki sat down next to the computer.

"Salamon, here I come," Keiko cheered as she lifted her D-3. "Digi-port open!"

888

"Why are we here again?" Daisuke yawned, as he sat in the computer room.

"Important news from Gennai," A cinnamon haired teen announced as he walked around the room. They were sitting in a semi-circle around him.

"Well what is it, Izzy?" Miyako yelped. Her pink hair was still clinging to her face from her shower.

"Don't worry about Ken, his mom said he had this date with that Keiko girl," A blonde haired boy announced as he held his sailor hat in his hands.

"I'm not worried about that, TK," Koushiro stated. "I was waiting for your brother, and for Taichi, I know Jyou is doing something with his father, touring colleges or something."

"Tai, got roped into visiting my grandparents with my mom," A young girl stated as she looked at Koushiro.

"Great," Koushiro rolled his eyes, "Thanks for saying that Hikari."

A young woman with short, dark hair looked up. She was wearing a pastel, knitted sweater and a sunny, yellow skirt. "Yamato is sick, something he ate last night."

"Hey, didn't you cook for Yamato last night, Sora?" Hikari asked as if it had just dawned on her. Hikari scratched her head ruffling the golden hair, there.

"It wasn't what I made that made him sick!" Sora yelped defensively as she looked at the young girl in the white and pink T-shirt. Sora instantly looked down, "Sorry, Hikari, it's just, I'm kind of self-conscious about my cooking."

"Don't worry, Tai, has made some real stinkers," the girl giggled as she held her nose.

A small, puppy-kitten was sitting in her lap, nodding furiously. "Not even Koromon would eat what he made two nights ago…"

"I bet I would!" yelped a plush blue creature, sitting on Daisuke's lap.

"That's because your mouth is a black hole," said the young man as he leaned back on his chair, stretching.

"His isn't the only one," A younger boy said. He had a bland, beige shirt and soft, tan hair. "Upamon ate a package of those special hand soaps, you know like the ones in hotels…"

"They looked like candies!" yelped the little ball with frilly ears.

"Don't worry, Iori, Poromon ate a napkin holder because it was one of these designer ones that look like huge chocolate chip cookies…" sighed Miyako quietly.

"Humans make everything look like candies, I think they're obsessed," stated a pink, feathered ball.

"Well, if you weren't obsessed with eating everything in sight, you wouldn't have eaten that salt shaker either," Miyako huffed as she gently noogied the feathered ball. "Right, Poromon! Just because it looks like corn doesn't mean it is!"

"Ack!" yelped the bird as it squirmed.

"Excuse me…" Patamon sat up on TK's head.

"Yeah, Izzy's trying to say something important!" yelped a small, pink creature that looked like a skirt with arms.

"If this keeps going," A pink bulb with little tentacle feet, sitting on Sora's lap, spoke up, "we'll never get out of here…."

"Thanks, Patamon, Motimon, Yokomon," Koushiro looked at the others and lifted a small clicker.

The cinnamon haired boy clicked the button and the large screen behind him flickered to life. It showed a gigantic tree out in the middle of the artic. It was a coniferous tree, a pine of one kind or another. It's entire trunk and branches seemed to glow with a holy aura. The light filtered through the pine needles.

"That's a lot of pine cones," Daisuke dropped forward and pulled down his blue T-shirt so that his tan stomach wasn't exposed anymore.

"That place looks familiar," Takeru stood up and walked up to the screen.

"Hey, isn't that where one of the Destiny Stones was?" Iori asked looking at Koushiro.

"Exactly," Koushiro nodded happily. "It seems that this last couple of weeks' quietness was all a prelude to this."

"To what?" Daisuke squinted his eyes.

"It seems that the Great Dragons have decided to lift the stakes," Koushiro clicked the slide changer again. The earlier picture zoomed in. "This was taken about fourteen hours ago…by Mimi, she was visiting the area. She's still there waiting for us."

Airdramon were circling around the top of the tree. The children looked at each other with worry.

"Why are they attacking a tree?" Daisuke scratched his brown haired head.

The others looked at him as if he'd just asked the stupidest question ever.

"Don't you remember?" Takeru looked at the boy with his blue eyes.

"Remember what?" Daisuke shook his head and looked blankly at Takeru.

"After we freed Azulongmon," Iori hinted looking at Daisuke.

"Yeah…so?" Daisuke's face scrunched up slightly as he tried to figure it out.

"Oh for crying out loud!" Miyako snapped and jumped up. She grabbed Daisuke by the shirt and shook him. "THE SEEDS OF LIGHT AND HOPE, NIMROD!"

"Oooooh!" Daisuke said as it finally clicked in his mind. He looked at Miyako and her pink shirt. "What exactly about them again…for those of us that don't remember…"

Miyako slapped her forehead started to growl. The hand she had on Daisuke curled tighter and her other hand rose up flat as she prepared to smack the boy silly.

"Miyako, count to ten," Hikari said as she stood up. "Right, when Azulongmon was freed, he told us that the Destiny Stones were made up of the powers of Hope and Light…and he released seven seeds to replace the broken Destiny Stones…"

"The seeds took root," Iori continued.

"And grew," Takeru nodded.

"But trees that size would've taken hundreds if not thousands of years to grow," Sora looked up at the tree. The thing looked like it was about the size of Mount Fuji. "Well, maybe millions of years…"

"This is the Digital World, remember," Koushiro reminded the brown haired girl as he turned. "The growth of this tree is more of a representation of the ascendancy of the powers of Light over the last year than an actual biological process, and considering Oikawa Yukio's sacrifice. I wouldn't be surprised to find the Destiny Trees to be this large; Oikawa's sacrifice was probably the best fertilizer the seeds could've gotten…"

The other children and their digimon looked at Koushiro with a half disgusted grimace.

"Uh, Izzy," Motimon tugged at the boy's reddish shirt.

"I think my analogy was maybe too close to the truth…" gulped the young man as he looked at the others.

"Uh, yeah," Miyako stated in the most obvious voice she could muster.

"Anyways, the dragons are attacking the Destiny Tree," Koushiro stated as if he was trying to shuffle everything under a carpet. "I suspect their goal is the same as Arukenimon's."

"Then it may be important to nip this thing in the bud," Daisuke said as he looked the picture. "Show them that we're not going to just sit there and watch them chop down the trees."

"We do have an advantage," Miyako said tapping her chin, "This time there are more of us and we know the landscape…"

"Evidently so do the dragons," Sora whispered as she looked at the screen. "They wouldn't have found it otherwise…"

"Enough yammering," Daisuke clapped his hands together, "Let's go already!"

"Well, someone's an eager beaver," Sora looked at the brown haired boy.

"You get used to it," Iori said as Daisuke clambered toward a computer, tripping over a desk chair. "Then again there are things that just keep surprising you…"

"Digi-port open!" Daisuke shouted as he pointed his D-3 at the computer with the digi-port program opened.

888

"Thizzz- is – the – Looo-cation," Tankdramon squadron leader 008 announced as it rolled to a stop.

The phalanx of SEALSdramon halted with a single stop. Tankdramon extended a small metallic rod from the front of its chassis with a red beacon on the end of it. The beacon blinked as a fan of blue light extended from the beacon and slid over the front of the brick ruins in front of them.

"Ad-vance!" commanded Tankdramon as it rolled forward. The phalanx of SEALSdramon marched after him into the darkness of the ruins' opening.

"A-lert! A-lert!" the squadron leader halted. It rolled around and faced the SEALSdramon. The headlights on the squadron leader glowed, glinting off the bluish-green armor of the SEALSdramon. "Life-forrrrm – deee-tected. It – is – ruuuun-ning with-in – stealth – par-am-e-ters! I – can-not – lock – on-to – it! Beeee – cau-tious! Ex-tend - Mon-o-Eye – scan – to – two – hun-dred - for-ty – me-ters!"

"We – O-bey!" announced the SEALSdramon as their red, mechanical eye focused.

The squadron leader rolled back around, "Ad-vance!"

Tankdramon rumbled forward rolling its treaded tires over the vines and broken masonry. The joints of the SEALSdramons' mechanical limbs hissed and their heavy, metal feet clanked against the ground. Tankdramon continued forward his headlights glaring against the sandy walls of the ruins. Beyond the short arc of light everything was plunged into darkness, at least on the visible light spectrum. Within its metal cocoon, Tankdramon had reassigned his optical sensors. It was taking in readings from both Infrared and Ultraviolet spectrums. It got read backs from bats fluttering past it, on a giant blue colored view screen on the inside of its metallic chamber. A constant sonar feed was fed into the sensors on Tankdramon's treads. The cybernetic digimon's mind was filled with floor plans and tastes of air. All the while the sensation of life was rumbling in his head from all directions. If there was one thing that Tankdramon could identify as frustration it was the omnipresence of the life signature it was detecting and the subsequent inability to focus the sensation into a single pulse that could be exterminated.

Tankdramon continued forward; sensors feeding information into its head as it moved onward. Suddenly something felt wrong and Tankdramon stopped. Ground sonar feeds stopped coming in from in front of the tank's treads.

"HAAALT!" The SEALSdramon froze in position obeying Tankdramon's screech. Tankdramon rolled back cautiously, "There – is an – ex-panse – a-head! An – A-byssss!" Tankdramon extended the metallic probe from the front of its chassis. A burst of light fired from the red beacon on the end of the rod. The rod slowly retracted back into Tankdramon's chassis. "There – is a – leeeedge – cir-cumventing – the – ex-paaaanse. It – is too – naaar-rooow for Tank-dra-mon – uuuuse." Suddenly the omnipresent pulsing in Tankdramon's head focused itself. It was close, within one hundred meters and moving fast. Tankdramon instantly swiveled around on its treaded wheels. "A-LERT! A-LERT! LIFE-FORM CLO-SING!"

"Solar Ray!" beams of energy roared out of the darkness behind the SEALSdramon phalanx.

The three aft-most SEALSdramon in the phalanx were struck in the back. They howled loudly as yellow sparks of energy engulfed their body.

"AR-MOR COMPROMISED!" whined the three SEALSdramon as they jerked and jostled. "DAM-AGE SUS-TAINED! MONO-EYE IN-OP-ER-ABLE! VISION IS IMPAAAAAIRRRRRED!"

"EXTERMINATE THE LIFE-FORM!" demanded Tankdramon as the struck SEALSdramon collapsed to the ground. The others turned around pointing their spears into the darkness.

"Identify your-self!" The SEALSdramon commanded to the darkness.

"You should be the ones to identify yourselves," returned the darkness in a dictatorial voice. "This place is under my care! You are intruders in this place!"

"The – carrre-takerrr?" Tankdramon dove into his memory, into the vast ocean of knowledge downloaded into an organically accessible computer database. "It – is Centaurumon! HE SHALL BE EXTERRRMINATED!"

"EXTERMINATE!" screeched the remaining SEALSdramon. The arrowheads at the tips of their spears sparked with blue energy.

Blue bursts of light shot into the darkness and faded into the shadows.

"THE LIFE-FORM, PERRR-SISTS!" Tankdramon announced. The life reading pulsed in Tankdramon's head though it was fading into the background. "SEALSdramon – u-nits – 004 – through – 006 - per-sue – the - life-form! U-nits – 001 – through – 003 – come – with – meeee!"

The three SEALSdramon that had made up the second row of the phalanx marched forward, stepping over their fallen comrades. The remaining three turned to Tankdramon.

"The – casu-alties – are – per-sisting!" announced the center member of the three SEALSdramon standing with Tankdramon.

"They – are – dam-aged," the left SEALSdramon announced.

"Con-sider-able – dam-age was in-fliiiic-ted – to their mo-bility sys-tems," the right dragon reported.

"They – will – slow – us – dooown," Tankdramon turned back around towards the expanse. "EX-TERMINATE THEM!"

"We – O-bey!" the three SEALSdramon turned around and pointed their spears at their damaged brethren. The spears glowed with blue energy that rifled through the fallen dragons until they exploded into data. The SEALSdramon turned back towards Tankdramon. "Extermination com-plete."

"El-e-vate!" Tankdramon rolled up to the edge of the expanse. An energy source from under Tankdramon sparked to life and the massive metal beast rose into the air. It hovered awkwardly. "Ad-vance!"

The SEALSdramon sidled along the narrow edge that bordered the abyss. Tankdramon slowly hovered over the abyss. Tankdramon finally touched ground again on the far side of the expanse. The metal dragon rolled into the next corridor. The SEALSdramon filed in behind Tankdramon and they all advanced into the shadows.

888

"Look it," Noriko and Penguinmon walked up at the top of the hill. She pointed down at the town below. Smoke was streaming up from burning buildings. The streets were filled with fluffy white stuff. "Is it snow?"

"More worried about the smoke and fire," Takashi whispered as he and a yellow caterpillar scrambled up next to the short haired girl.

"That's Toy Town!" the yellow caterpillar's scratchy voice announced.

"Kunemon's right," a purple and white mushroom ran up next to the caterpillar. "What's happening!?"

"I don't know, Mushroomon," Penguinmon looked worriedly at the fungus digimon. "But it can't be good…"

Ken looked at the digimon as they peered over the hill at the town. He looked down at Wormmon.

"This is horrible," Hiroshi whispered. He stood next to Ken. "What could have done this?"

"Is it, is it Magnamon?" Keiko's voice gulped as she looked down at the city.

"No, he's gone," Ken replied as he looked over at her. One of her hands was twisting her shoulder-length brown hair. She was biting the knuckle of the other one. Ken walked forward with Wormmon at his side, "I can guess what has happened though…A week ago, a city was destroyed so was the forest around it. Remember how I told you about the Great Dragons and why it wasn't safe to come to the Digital World alone anymore?"

The other children looked at Ken with wide eyes and nodded. Noriko looked down at the city, "Are you saying…?"

"Let's get down there and see if there are any survivors," Ken said walking past the children and briskly jogged down the hill with Wormmon bounding behind him.

The other children looked at each other and then ran after Ken. The dark haired boy was more than a ten meters ahead of them, his strong soccer legs gave him an advantage over the others when it came to running. He staggered slightly as the ground changed angle as he came to the bottom of the hill.

Ken skidded to a stop. The other children tumbled along behind him staggering a little as they slid past him on the grass. Ken walked forward slowly. He could see it on the streets and the buildings of Toy Town, there had been a pitched battle. He walked forward carefully walking onto the brick streets. Fluff filled the street. It was creamy-white like, cotton. Scorch marks covered the buildings, windows were broken, giant craters riddled the street. Ken staggered as his foot fell into one concealed by the white fluff.

"Ken, if they have attacked Toy Town…" Wormmon whispered up at the dark haired boy.

"We need to see if anyone needs our help," Ken stated firmly, "before we can deal with the Primary Village."

"There may not be a…" Wormmon started.

"Don't say that too loudly," Ken whispered as he looked back at Keiko. The brown haired girl was looking around wide-eyed awe.

"What is this stuff?" Takashi picked up the fluff in his hands.

"You don't want to know," A gruff little voice said. The children jumped and spun around. A small mouse wandered out of the alley. It was pink and walked on its hind legs.

"Who are you?" Hiroshi asked as he ran forward with Mushroomon behind him.

"I'm Chuumon," whispered the little creature as it staggered forward, barely wading through the fluff. "I saw everything…it was horrible…"

"Chuumon…" Ken walked forward. "Don't you normally travel with Sukamon?"

"We do…but we're destined to be apart it seems," Whimpered the little mouse as it looked up into Ken's eyes. "It was horrible…"

"What happened?" Noriko asked as the little girl looked at the mouse.

"They came…the…dragons came," Chuumon shuddered as he looked around. "Metallic, tanks…and robotic ones…they came. We tried to warn Monzaemon…everyone…but they came."

"And…where's Monzaemon?" Ken looked around trying to find the massive teddy bear. "Did he retreat to Primary Village…?"

Chuumon shook and his body trembled and all of a sudden tears exploded from his tiny eyes. "YOU'RE STANDING IN HIM!"

Ken's blood froze. He looked at the others. Takashi dropped the fluff he had in his hands and backed away. The others started to wade backwards through the fluff as if they were walking through blood, which was appropriate. Ken picked up Chuumon and Wormmon and retreated with the others.

"Where'd they go…the ones that did this?" Ken looked down at the mouse in his arms.

"Don't know…but we…I mean Sukamon and I, saw them come on the island," Chuumon whimpered curling up tighter in Ken's arms, "They came in three big groups and one group was going to Primary Village, one was going to the old ruins Centaurumon watches and the other was sent out to destroy anyone that resists…"

"Primary Village," Keiko looked up at Ken instantly. "What about Salamon!?"

"I don't know, but we're going to Primary Village now," Ken stated sharply as he walked forward. "Wormmon…"

The caterpillar leapt off of Ken's shoulders and jumped onto a clear piece of pavement. Ken held out his digivice. Wormmon glowed as the energy was transferred.

"Wormmon digivolve to…" The green worm grew into a tall, wasp-like warrior. "Stingmon!" Its red eyes looked down at Ken as the dark haired boy nodded and let a pink ball of energy free from his D-3. "Stingmon Armor Synthesis Digivolve to DinoBeemon! The Strong Heart of Kindness!"

A heavily armored dragon-like insect hovered in the air, its wings blowing fluff in all directions. Muscular blue arms reached upwards. Green armor covered its torso, head and legs. Ken was quick to get on DinoBeemon's back. He reached down and grasped Keiko's hand. The girl climbed up behind Ken. Takashi and Hiroshi with Kunemon and Mushroomon climbed up after him. Noriko looked down at Penguinmon and then up at the crowded back of DinoBeemon.

"No, Penguinmon and I can do this," The short, brown haired girl looked down at her blue, penguin friend and lifted her own D-3.

"Penguinmon digivolve to…." The flightless, marine bird burst with light as it morphed into a totally different form, an equine form. A white horse with black, feathered wings stepped forward with hoofed feet. "…Unimon!"

Noriko gently climbed up on the horse's back. "Ok, lead the way, Ken."

Ken nodded and DinoBeemon's slow flapping became loud, helicopter like thrumming. The giant insect wobbled as it readjusted its mass and then thrust itself forward. Unimon flapped its wings and galloped after the insect.

888

Koushiro trudged through the snow. Fortunately the transport to the Digital World had given him some winter clothes when he materialized. It was a green, down coat. Sora was lucky enough to get a light blue coat with a faux fur lining along the collar and hood. The others seemed to have their normal winter wear materialized around them. Daisuke was shuddering under his brown and red jacket, swearing about hating the cold.

He looked up and saw Mimi dressed in her green jacket. Her pink hair was tucked under a red stocking cap. Huddled next to her was a green, humanoid plant with a pink flower on its oval head. The plants arms were wrapped around its body.

"Mimi!" Koushiro shouted as he ran forward. Tentomon buzzed along beside him, the red ladybug flew slightly ahead of him.

"Izzy, you came," Mimi said as she poured a steaming liquid out of a pink thermos. She handed Koushiro a cup filled with hot chocolate. "I've been waiting for a while."

"I'm sorry," Koushiro apologized as he graciously took the cup and drank the hot liquid, jerking slightly at the intense heat. Mimi was pouring other cups for the other children as they arrived. "How'd you get your parents to let you stay here for fourteen hours?"

"If you think…" the plant next to Mimi chattered, looking up at Koushiro with large eyes, "we…st-st-stayed here for fourteen hours, you're cr-cr-crazy."

"Palmon and I have been coming and going for a while," Mimi nodded as she gave Daisuke a cup of hot chocolate. "Getting something to eat or some hot chocolate…"

Daisuke eagerly gulped his cup of hot liquid down and only a few seconds later when his throat told him it was scalded did he scream and stick his head in a snow bank. The others shook their heads and gently sipped at their steaming beverages. Mimi gave the digimon some hot chocolate as well, the creatures warily drank it, except Veemon who, like Daisuke, was over eager to warm up and a few seconds later was next to his partner with his head in a snow bank.

"Any change?" Sora asked as she used her hand as a visor and looked at the mountainous conifer in the distance.

"Nope," Mimi sighed sitting on a log. "They just circle. It's like they are waiting for something…"

"Orders?" Iori asked as the little boy sipped his hot chocolate.

"Why, why not just blow it up now?" Takeru asked as he curled his hands around the hot cup, trying to warm them.

"Maybe they can't," Miyako looked down at the brick-red hawk standing next to her.

"It is huge, it would take quite a bit to knock that tree down," Hikari looked at the Destiny Tree watching the small slivers of green gliding around it.

"Well, other digimon have come in the last few hours," Mimi said as she looked up at the other children. "Some ground, some on the wing…"

"Hikari, do you have your spy scope?" Takeru asked extending his hand. Hikari rummaged around in her pants' pockets and pulled out a small telescope. She handed it to Takeru and he extended the scope out with a quick 'schlik' sound. He lifted the mini-telescope to his eyes and scanned the tree. Takeru took a deep breath.

"What is it!?" Takeru nearly leapt out of his skin at the sound of Daisuke's voice right behind him. Takeru snapped the telescope down and turned, glaring at Daisuke.

"Don't do that!" Takeru yelped as he glared at Daisuke. The brown haired boy smiled mischievously as the other stifled a slight giggle. Takeru frowned, "It wasn't funny…"

"Well, what was it?" Salamon implored looking up from Hikari's side.

"There are more than Airdramon in the sky," Takeru replied, handing the scope over to Koushiro. Koushiro frowned as he looked through it. The cinnamon haired boy passed the scope to Sora.

"Megadramon and Gigadramon," Sora whispered as she scanned across the sky. She looked down near the trunk of the tree where the ground digimon were. "I've never seen digimon like that…what do you think, Biyomon?"

Sora passed the telescope to the pink sparrow next to her. The large, hip-tall bird clasped the scope with the claws at the end of her wings and lifted it to her eyes.

"The skinny, muscular ones with the green jeans are Strikedramon…" Biyomon whispered. "The bulky, blue ones with the horns on their heads are Veedramon…both of them are tough opponents…"

"At least there aren't very many of them," Koushiro sighed as he looked at the tree. "It won't be like Format Island where we were simply overwhelmed."

"No, it's not going to be like Format Island," Daisuke said sternly as he and Veemon walked forward, "because this time we're not running away."

"We're going to go in, and wipe them out," Veemon nodded hopping forward and clenching his fists.

"What?" Mimi looked at the boy and his blue dragon partner. Mimi looked at Koushiro and Sora, "What's he talking about?"

"At Format Island, there was considerable fighting," Koushiro explained.

"Our original plan was to simply chase the dragons off," Tentomon buzzed hovering in front of Koushiro. "Unfortunately the dragons did not think that was enough and continued their assault…we were backed into a corner and forced to…"

"Eliminate the threat on a more permanent basis," Koushiro finished quietly.

"You killed them!?" Mimi looked at Koushiro with glazed over eyes.

"Mimi, it wasn't easy for any of us," Koushiro said, instantly, knowing where this was going. "We don't enjoy it, but the Dragon digimon have declared war on everyone! You should've seen the massacre at Loto Dell'Ombra! They didn't hesitate to burn down the forest surrounding the city to aid their search for refugees. We know from reports that Loto Dell'Ombra had a large number of baby digimon…and there were no survivors. None! The dragons aren't playing around Mimi…if we don't do something more drastic than normal they'll just walk over us. Plus, it's not like they are truly dead…they just go back to the Data looms and the Great Dragons bring them back to life…if anything we're just relocating them."

Mimi frowned and turned away from Koushiro. "I can't kill. After Apocalymon I said I wasn't going to destroy another life, and then when we destroyed that little DemiMamon; it just about made me feel sick…"

"So in order to save the lives of a few dragon digimon, you're willing to sacrifice the lives of billions of peaceful digimon," Everyone turned around and looked at the speaker. Mimi stood up and walked to the speaker.

"Miyako…" Mimi looked at the younger, pink haired girl in shock.

"I was at Format Island; I tried my best not to hurt the dragons…" Miyako stated looking Mimi in the eyes, "but they didn't want to be protected, they didn't want to be shooed away. They wanted to kill, and they didn't care if you were helping, hurting or totally uninvolved. If you weren't a dragon you were a target, plain and simple. They have no mercy, no compassion, and…they don't want it. So, I guess I'm saying that we have to fight them. We have to stop them at any cost. Being digi-destined doesn't mean you get to make the decisions, a lot of times the decisions are made for you by others…"

Mimi blinked at Miyako for several minutes and then looked back at Palmon. The child sized plant digimon looked at Hawkmon and then to Mimi.

"We don't have much time, Mimi," Sora said as she looked back at the tree. "These trees are the lynchpins of the Digital World, if they are uprooted…"

"Everything will fall apart," Hikari said looking at the girl dressed in the green coat. "The barrier between the Digital World and earth will shatter and then we'll have the Great Dragons in our backyard."

"Can you imagine something like the Massacre of Loto Dell'Ombra happening in Tokyo?" Iori whispered as he looked down at Armadillomon.

"Or New York," Takeru said looking at Mimi intently.

Mimi bit her lip as she looked at the snowy ground. Her soft, beige gloved hands clenched. A tear drop fell from her eyes.

"I guess…you're right," Mimi looked up.

"Are you sure?" Koushiro asked as he looked at the young woman. "You have to be true to yourself…"

"I knew the dragons were dangerous," Mimi said looking back at the Destiny Tree, "but in New York, everything is so far removed; it's like watching a hurricane hitting a town on TV…you can see it, but it's not really real…at least not to you," Mimi looked at the other digi-destined, "but I'm here now…and the storm is real. I can't ignore it anymore…"

The others nodded soberly. Mimi turned around and looked at the tree, with the dragons wheeling around it.

"We need a plan of attack," Iori said as he looked to the others.

"I think I have one," Koushiro stated as he knelt down in the snow. "It's simple, but it's a plan, and simple plans are the best." Koushiro took a pen out of his pocket and used it to draw in the snow. He drew a large circle with little X's around it. "There are two groups we need to evict from the region…The aerial dragons and the ground dragons, so…" Koushiro drew small triangles in the snow and then slid his pen along the snow until they contacted the X's. "Sora, TK, Kari and Miyako will engage the aerial dragons. Daisuke, Iori, Mimi and I will attack the ground dragons. With any luck such an attack will sufficiently dislodge them from their positions to make it relatively simple to push them away with as few casualties as possible. Without luck, we'll be mired in a horrible fight of attrition that'll lead to us retreating…"

"Let's hope for the first one," Takeru said as he looked at Koushiro.

"I share your sentiments on the matter," Koushiro flicked his eyes up to Takeru.

"Let's go, already!" Daisuke shouted as he stood up, dusting the snow off his pants. "They may have already burned down the tree!"

The others got up and prepared themselves. The first battles may have gone to the dragons but this time, the win would be theirs, or at least that was the plan.

888

The intruders were slow, clunky and loud, but they were also persistent. Centaurumon had tried to lose them in the several hundred twists and turns in the lower catacombs of the ruins, but to no avail. They continued their pursuit. He stopped for a few seconds standing in front of an intersection. He hoped to use the breather to get a better plan. The three chasing him were not the entirety of the invasion force, the other four were probably continuing on their mission. He had to stop them before they reached their destination.

"Cent-aur-u-mon – dee-tec-ted," The shrill voice of Centaurumon's pursuers bounced off the walls of the tunnels, reverberating harshly against the brickwork.

Centaurumon backed away from the corridor the voice came from.

"It – shall – be – ex-terrrminated!" a voice erupted from the corridor Centaurumon was backing into.

Centaurumon twisted around, his four, horse hoofed feet deftly sweeping around. Centaurumon's single eye glanced around but his helmet greatly narrowed his field of vision. He lifted the arm and his gauntleted hand morphed into a solar energy weapon. He could hear two sets of metallic footsteps marching towards him. Centaurumon narrowed his eyes, where was the third pursuer.

"EXTERMINATE!" screeched the voices from ahead and behind him.

The darkness was cleaved by a blue energy pulse. Centaurumon shunted to the left into the intersecting corridor. The energy pulses flew past one another. There were two screeches and then silence, total silence.

Centaurumon sighed quietly to himself. "Two down one to go."

He turned to continue down the corridor he'd shunted into; as he turned he noticed a red light at the end of the corridor.

"Cent-aur-u-mon – de-tec-ted," a grating hiss droned from in front of Centaurumon.

Centaurumon froze. He slowly lifted his arm, charging the weapon attached to it.

"DO – NOT – MOVE!" Two voices shouted from behind Centaurumon. The centaur swept around. Two mechanical, bipedal dragons were standing behind him.

"Impossible! I heard you hit one another!" Centaurumon shouted.

"You – heard – what – we – wan-ted you to heaaarrr!" grated the left dragon.

"You – will – be – exterminated!" announced the right dragon as it pointed its spear at Centaurumon. Electrical sparks played over the edges of the spearhead.

"EXTERMINATE!" Centaurumon reared up on his back legs as an electrical pulse smashed in between his shoulder blades. He pointed his energy weapon down at the two digimon in front of him.

"Solar Ray!" A streak of orange light exploded toward the two dragons.

"De-fense – ar-ray – ac-tiv-ate," chirped the two dragons as the beam seemed to be caught in a film that surrounded the dragons. The dragons pushed their spears forward. "Exterminate!"

Blue energy pulses exploded into Centaurumon's chest. Centaurumon's front legs crashed to the ground and he staggered backward. He slumped forward onto his front knees. He clenched his fists digging deeply into himself searching for fortitude. He rose to one foot. He lifted his gauntlet again. He fired another bolt of solar energy into the dragons before him. The energy beam seemed to only get caught in the ethereal quagmire that surrounded the dragons.

"Your – fire-power – is – in-suf-ficient," announced the left dragon. "Re-sis-tance – is – use-less. You – are – in-ferrrior!"

"You – shall – diiiie!" Screeched the dragon behind Centaurumon.

The centaur had forgotten about that one, though the dragon made quick work of reminding him by pumping his back with the electrical bolts that they used as weapons. Centaurumon sank back down to his knees. The bolts seemed to numb his muscles. His body felt heavy.

More bolts struck him, this time from front and back. Centaurumon's head drooped as his neck muscles became numb and flaccid. The dragons in front of him advanced. Centaurumon tried to make a daring strike as a last ditch effort to escape, but he only succeeded in falling on his side from the exertion. His eye rolled as far as it could to the right so he could see the dragons. One of them pointed its spear at his head. He could see the mechanical lenses in its red lit eye swiveling as it focused. At this range Centaurumon could see that the bluish-green armor of the beast concealed mutated, blue flesh. The spearhead sparked and he heard the shrill battle scream.

"EXTERMINATE!"

888

Tankdramon slowly turned around a corner. They were close to their designated coordinates. It rolled down the corridor, its sensors reaching out like fingers into the darkness. Suddenly there was a ping in Tankdramon's head. It stopped and uploaded a file transmitted by its subordinates.

"Life-form – has – ceased – its – per-sis-tence!" announced Tankdramon to the three SEALSdramon behind him.

"Dra-mon – are – supreme! All – Hail – the – Dra-mon!" the SEALSdramon replied in their screeching tone.

"Ad-vance – to – da-ta – ark – cham-berrrr!" Tankdramon started again rolling forward on its tank treads. The SEALSdramon walked after the tank without argument or conversation.

Tankdramon wheeled around another bend in the corridor and stopped. There was a door blocking its way. Tankdramon retreated slightly. The SEALSdramon took a step back and then stood at attention behind Tankdramon. The front of the tank chassis slid open and the metallic probe extended forward. The red beacon blinked as it scanned the stone barrier in front of it. The triangular prism on top of the prism hissed as the upper portion of the prism, decorated to look like a dragon's head, opened. A mutated, blue-gray fleshed dragon torso rose out of the metallic chassis of the tank. The head and neck were attached, directly to the upper 'jaw' of the metal 'head' of the tank. A slimy, blue-gray arm extended.

"Door – com-bin-a-tion…multi-vec-tored, quan-tum passsss-worrrd," gargled the dragon torso as its voice was only partially filtered through its mechanical voice box. "Cal-cu-late! Trans-ferrr – all – com-put-a-tional – pow-er – to – meeee!"

"We – O-bey!" the three SEALSdramon took a step forward and inserted the spearheads of their spears into ports in the aft sections of Tankdramon. They stepped back and then opened ports on their chests and inserted the back end of the spears into their chests. The SEALSdramon then slunk into a limp posture as if unconscious.

The prism head of Tankdramon closed as the mutated creature inside retracted back into the chassis. The lights on the top of the metal head of Tankdramon glowed ceaselessly as data swirled from the probe to Tankdramon and then was siphoned through the SEALSdramon via the spears, back to Tankdramon and then transmitted, via the probe, to a small access port that flickered with billions of combinations. After thirty seconds seventeen stars blinked on the access panel.

"Dis-en-gage – net-work," commanded Tankdramon.

The SEALSdramon seemed to snap out of whatever trance they had entered and withdrew themselves from their spears and then took the spears out of the back of Tankdramon. The stone door slid open with a slight whine as rock rubbed on rock. A light flooded the corridor from within the chamber beyond the door.

"I – Shall – Ad-vance!" announced Tankdramon. "The – ark – room – must – be pro-tected – at – all – costs! Re-main, as-sume – de-fensive po-sitions!"

"We – O-bey!" The SEALSdramon saluted and then turned to face the shadows behind them their spears pointed into the darkness. A shimmering skin of energy surrounded the SEALSdramon's armor. "De-fense – Ar-ray – Ac-ti-va-ted!"

Tankdramon rolled forward into the light. The room was filled with digi-code in ancient kanji. Each symbol glowed with a golden light and in the middle of the room was a giant ball. Zeros and ones swirled in the orb. Pure, raw data twisted in front of Tankdramon.

"Ac-cess-ing – da-ta – ark!" Tankdramon shouted to no one in particular as it extended the probe it'd used to decrypt the cipher that opened the door. The probe pierced the semi-fluid membrane around the data. "In-i-ti-ate – down-load!"

White lightning jolted down the probe and invaded the metal hull of Tankdramon. It screeched in pain as the data surged through its brain. Specifications, measurements, endurance tests zapped through its mind, each flashing for a second. No meaning, no connections were between the flashes. They were absolutely random. Within in its metal encasement its mutated flesh twitched as the data surge tore through Tankdramon's nervous system.

It screeched again, gurgling as the slime on its flesh sizzled. The orb started to shrink as the raw data was absorbed. Sparks exploded off of the metal exterior of Tankdramon. Its sensors were all inactive and for the first time the beast was in true and complete darkness the only sensation it detected was its own screeches of pain and the smell of its flesh burning. The orb continued to shrink as it funneled into Tankdramon.

It took twenty minutes for the orb to finish streaming into Tankdramon. The metallic beast continued to scream for another five minutes as the energy from the download snapped and sparked across its inner and outer skin. The kanji lined walls' shine faded and went dark. Tankdramon jerkily turned around and exited the room. Its sensors were still blind and it bumped into the edge of the doorway and stopped. It rolled back and turned slightly and then proceeded out of the room.

"Re-port!" one of the SEALSdramon turned around and looked down at Tankdramon.

"I – am – the – da-ta – ark," replied Tankdramon slowly. "Sen-sors – have – sus-tained – dam-age. My – vis-ion – is – im-paired. I – need – as-sistance."

"Trans-fer-ring – Mono-eye – scout-er," The SEALSdramon reached up and twisted its red eye. The mechanical appendage popped out of its socket. The SEALSdramon then knelt before the Tankdramon, "Ex-tend – probe!"

"I – o-bey," Tankdramon returned as the front portion of its chassis slid open and the metal rod extended out like an antenna. The red beacon blinked. The SEALSdramon attached the Mono-eye device to the beacon. The probe started to retract but stopped just as the mono-eye was about to be pulled into the chassis. The rod stopped retracting and the sliding doors on the chassis closed, holding the scouter in place. "Vis-ion – is – with-in ac-cep-ta-ble par-ameters," announced Tankdramon as the red ocular transplant buzzed, its lens twisting and focusing. "We – shall – re-con-noiter – with – the – o-ther – SEALS-dra-mon – un-its."

"Ad-vance," announced the middle SEALSdramon. "The – da-ta – ark – must – be – pro-tected!"

The SEALSdramon marched forward, in front of Tankdramon. Tankdramon slowly followed them. Everything was filtered through a crimson lens. They slowly made their way forward. A ping shouted into Tankdramon's pounding head.

"A-lert, A-lert! In-com-ing – mess-age – from – in-va-sion – un-it – 003!" The SEALSdramon stopped. "Re-in-force-ments need-ed in sec-tor 1."

"Com-mun-i-cate – de-clin-a-tion – to – the – or-der!" The middle SEALSdramon replied. "The – da-ta – ark – is – of – priiii-mary importance! WE – CAN-NOT – PUT – IT AT RISK!"

"I – o-bey," Tankdramon replied as it transmitted the response.

"Ad-vance!" the center SEALSdramon commanded as it turned. The SEALSdramon marched forward with Tankdramon rolling slowly behind it.

888

Ken cupped his hands over his eyes as DinoBeemon broke over the edge of the canopy of the forest that surrounded Primary Village. Chuumon had wanted left off in the forest, and DinoBeemon had obliged the rodent. It was a good thing, too. Ken could already see that the foam earth that made up the grounds of the village was torched. The smell of burning foam burned his nose. Many of the blocks were also burning, or melted or deflated. He could hear a gasp from behind him. He didn't need to look back to know that it was Keiko. The bassinets below were crushed. Little spots of ash surrounded the baby holders. He could also pick out the crushed shards of digi-eggs.

DinoBeemon touched down on the plush earth. Ken leapt down, as did the others with him. Unimon glided overhead, wheeling in the air.

"We're too late!" Keiko yelped as she looked at broken digi-eggs. She cupped her hands over her mouth. "Salamon! SALAMON!"

Ken spun around and grasped Keiko's arm, "SHH! If the ones that did this are still around then you're just going to bring them to us!" He looked up at Unimon, "Can you see anything Noriko?"

"No!" The little girl shouted back.

"Where's Elecmon?" Ken asked himself as he trudged forward.

As if on cue a giant blast of lightning exploded upward into the sky, from behind a group of toy block pillars.

"Umm…" Takashi pointed at the pillars, "think that was him?"

"Thanks," Ken said with a frown. He turned to the others, "Come on!"

He ran backward for a few seconds and then turned in the direction he was running. DinoBeemon whirred overhead buzzing ahead of Ken. Unimon and Noriko flew after the giant insect. He bounded around the corner of one of the pillars and came face to face with a mechanical beast. It walked on its back legs and had a rough draconic look that came through its heavy, blocky, greenish-bluish-gray armor. Its head was slightly triangular with a heavy, metallic crest on its forehead. The beast swept a spear around and pointed the bladed end at Ken.

"Irritant Buzz!" Ken covered his ears as a throbbing noise shook his body. The ultrasonic pulse struck the armored dragon knocking it backward. The beast seized up.

"SON-IC – IN-TER-FER-ENCE!" screeched the beast as it swung around wildly, "SEN-SORS – ARE – COMPROMISED! CIR-CUITS ARE COMPRO-MISED! I CAN-NOT MOVE FOR-WARD! A-LERT A-LERT WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!"

"Who are you!?" Ken shouted at the beast as it shuddered.

He didn't get an answer. DinoBeemon buzzed in front of Ken. The heavy clanking of armor clattered in the air. Suddenly the area in front of him was filled with creatures similar to the one DinoBeemon had incapacitated.

"I-dent-i-fy – your-self!" demanded one of the creatures. They had their spears pointed at DinoBeemon.

"You first," Ken replied as the others ran up behind him and stopped.

"We – are – SEALS-dra-mon!" one of the dragon's eyes, a red mechanical device, focused on Ken. "You – are – not – a – di-gi-mon!"

Ken took a step back and hid, slightly, behind DinoBeemon. He didn't like being scrutinized by this SEALSdramon thing.

"That's right," Ken shouted out to the creatures. There were nine of the creatures, including the one incapacitated on the ground. "What are you doing here?"

"We – will – re-trieve – the – da-ta con-den-sation – core," replied the SEALSdramon.

"The what?" Takashi asked in Ken's ear.

"The looming device that weaves data into digi-eggs," replied Ken in a whisper.

"What are we going to do?" Hiroshi asked quietly looking at the creatures.

"Don't know; there aren't very many of them and they seem to be disadvantaged against DinoBeemon," Ken whispered back to Hiroshi. "Can your digimon digivolve?"

"Yeah…" Hiroshi looked at Ken and then back down to Mushroomon.

"You mean we're going to fight them?" Takashi asked as he peered at the creatures. "They outnumber us…"

"We have an advantage…" Ken replied.

"What about Salamon…what if they know where she is!?" Keiko hissed.

"Just a second," Ken said as he stuck his head out from behind DinoBeemon. "How far have you gotten, SEALSdramon?"

"Clar-i-fy, got-ten," requested the armored dragon.

"You are purifying the island, how far have you gotten?" Ken shouted back in annoyance.

"The – care-taker – of the – di-gi-eggs has – proved e-vasive!" the spokesman of the SEALSdramon revealed. "He – has – a group of digimon with him…and a di-gi-egg…they – are – the – on-ly – sur-vi-vors."

"Ten yen says that digi-egg is Salamon," Ken said quietly. He looked to Keiko. "Try and connect with her. We need to find Elecmon."

"Okay…" Keiko nodded and closed her eyes and rubbed her head.

"A-LERT! A-LERT! FLY-ING – DI-GI-MON DE-TECTED!" announced the SEALSdramon. The instantly turned and pointed their spears up to the sky. Unimon flew over the block towers. "EXTERMINATE THE FLYING PEST!"

"NO!" Ken shouted as he watched the spearheads of the staffs glow with energy and blue bursts exploded upwards. Ken looked up at DinoBeemon, "Stop them!"

"Irritant BUZZ!" DinoBeemon thrummed his wings as sonic pulse rifled through the air.

Three of the SEALSdramon were clipped by the ultrasonic blast. They howled their litany of damage as their bodies convulsed. The other SEALSdramon turned and opened fire on DinoBeemon. The huge insect was pushed back by five bolts of blue energy.

"I need help!" Ken shouted frantically to the others.

Hiroshi and Takashi looked at each other and then at their digimon. They fumbled for their D-3s as energy bursts whizzed past their heads.

"Mushroomon digivolve to…!" The mushroom digimon leapt forward with a roar. The roar echoed as the fungal digimon made a huge trans-kingdom metamorphosis. Clawed paws smashed forward and a fanged mouth roared as a mane of dark brown fur flowed around a huge, feline head. It stood forward with all four feet on the ground and roared loudly. Its ears were pierced. Two tails swished behind it. "….RAIAMON!" Energy flowed around the huge feline and collected into its mouth, "THUNDER OF THE KING!"

A lightning bolt snarled forward exploding into one SEALSdramon, causing the creature to explode.

"Kunemon digivolve to…!" The lightning streaked worm bounded forward and glowed. It took on a human form that charged forward. Shogun armor covered its wide shouldered body. A demonic face was twisted into a rage filled snarl. The shogun grabbed one of the swords sheathed at its side. "…MUSYAMON! SHOGUN SWORD!"

Musyamon swept past one of the armored dragons with its sword extended. The dragon turned, pointed its spear at Musyamon's back. Ken was about to shout out, but soon saw it was unnecessary, as the dragon came apart in two pieces and exploded.

"Aerial Attack!" Unimon dove in and out of the pulses of blue energy firing aquamarine orbs of energy into the SEALSdramon.

The armored Dramon retreated, firing bolts of energy at their attackers. The energy bolts swept out into the air and pelted the baby blocks, poofing into ozone scented smoke.

Ken swung around and looked to Keiko, "Anything?"

"I…think so…" Keiko winced and looked up at Ken and pointed to the left, into the forest, "that way…"

"Come on then," Ken shouted as DinoBeemon scooped him and Keiko up in his muscular, blue arms.

Takashi and Hiroshi climbed up on Raiamon's back. The muscular lion bounded after DinoBeemon. Musyamon sprinted alongside the lion, its red armor clattering as it ran. Unimon dove in behind the two ground digimon, with Noriko holding on for dear life.

Blue bolts of energy fired from between the trees, chasing them as they dove into the forest. The dragons may have been taken off guard and may have suffered casualties but they weren't going to give up.

As Ken and the others retreated into the forest, bolts started to explode from all directions. Ken bit his lip. There had been more. DinoBeemon was ducking and weaving through a hail of energy bursts that exploded into trees, causing the wood to explode from water vapor expansion.

"DinoBeemon," Ken shouted over the twisting maelstrom of wing thrumming and explosions. "Can you make your Irritant Buzz bigger?"

"You mean extend the arc?" DinoBeemon rumbled with his thrumming, warbly voice.

"Yeah!" Ken shouted with a nod.

"I can try!" DinoBeemon replied as he pulled back.

"TAKASHI, HIROSHI! KEEP RUNNING FORWARD!" Ken shouted as DinoBeemon rose into the air. He looked at Unimon and Noriko. "Noriko, get out of the way!"

The winged unicorn wheeled away. Raiamon and Musyamon disappeared into the undergrowth of the forest. Ken looked to Keiko and then up to DinoBeemon.

"Let it rip!" shouted Ken.

DinoBeemon blurred his wings, turning them into a misty white wave of motion. The wings heated from the friction with the air. A pulse of ultrasound ripped through the air. The forest shuddered as air molecules concussed against bark, leaves, rocks and earth. The attacks ceased and Ken sighed happily.

"Impressive…" Keiko said.

"Not really," DinoBeemon admitted as he dove back down to meet with the others, "I'm afraid that since I extended the arc of the attack, its potency fell, as such they were only temporarily incapacitated; they'll rouse in about five minutes…"

"Then let's get going!" Ken said with a nod.

888

The Airdramon seemed to ignore them for the most part, at least at first. Miyako frowned as the dragons refused to turn on them. She and Aquilamon glided alongside Birdramon. Hikari, Takeru, Nefertimon and Pegasusmon were gliding further off.

Miyako looked forward; the dragons were still unresponsive to their advance. She may be willing to fight the dragons, but they would have to fight back. They closed within a hundred feet of the dragons and the winged, green serpents continued their oblivious circling. Miyako gulped and looked down. The ground was blurred by clouds disturbed snow. The ground dragons were launching barrages at Daisuke's group. Miyako sighed slightly and looked up. A giant, scaly tail swept right in front of her eyes. Miyako screamed as Aquilamon dove downward.

Birdramon and Sora had taken the high road. The orange, fiery phoenix let out a loud screech as it flapped its huge wings. Suddenly, Birdramon twisted downward. A huge cybernetic dragon with rusty flesh dropped out of the sky. Its heavy metal hands were open revealing a large gun port in the palms. The large metal claws glinted in the sunlight.

Birdramon swept around as the dragon's lavender feathered wings tilted and the huge legless beast twisted to the left. Miyako yelped as the metal helmeted head of the dragon flew by her face. Aquilamon shimmied and twisted as the large, red eagle tried to stay stable in the dragon's air-wake.

"Megadramon!" Aquilamon roared as he twisted out of the massive dragon's wake.

"Attack!" roared the dragon as it rolled around and thrust its fists forward. The metallic claws snapped opened. "Darkside Attack!"

Missiles roared upward and hissed past Aquilamon as they whistled towards Birdramon. The fiery bird quickly swept, flying so that her wingtips were pointed towards the ground. Birdramon sliced between the missiles and they exploded beyond the huge bird.

Miyako hadn't time to think though as Aquilamon jerked downward and a wave of fireballs shot over Miyako's head. The Airdramon were turning towards her.

"It was a trap!" Aquilamon growled as he swept his wings back to slip through a thin strip of airspace between two oncoming fireballs.

"They acted all obviously to lure us in," Miyako grumbled as she clutched the brick red feathers of Aquilamon's shoulders. "They knew we wouldn't make the first strike…Kari and Takeru!"

Miyako lifted her head and looked in the direction the two digi-destined had gone. The Airdramon were swarming around Nefertimon and Pegasusmon, but that wasn't the worst. Another huge, cybernetic dragon was barreling down toward the two Armored digimon and their partners. It had purple flesh and metallic wings but its arms had the same metallic enhancements to them as the rusty dragon.

"Gigadramon!" Miyako yelped. She pulled on Aquilamon's feathered back, "We have to go over there!"

"Meteor Wing!" Miyako heard Birdramon screech. She turned her head and saw a hail of meteors crash down around Megadramon but the hefty Ultimate shrugged off the burning comets with a ruffle of its large feathered wings.

Miyako turned her attention forward again. Gigadramon was looming ahead. Flashes of flame roasted forward from behind her. The Airdramon were still firing on them.

"Blast Rings!" Aquilamon rocketed forward sweeping his wings back.

His beak opened and circular energy rings erupted from his mouth striking Gigadramon in the chest and stomach. The purpled dragon snorted and closed its metallic clawed fists. Gigadramon then raged forward, charging towards Aquilamon.

"Ok…this is bad…" Miyako gulped watching the dragon growing as it closed in on her and Aquilamon.

"Grand Horn!" Aquilamon thrust his horned head forward.

The huge forward curled horns on the eagle's head glowed and speared forward making a glancing blow against Gigadramon's metal capped head. It was enough though and Gigadramon twisted off from his attack run. However, the massive dragon's body produced an even more massive wash of air by swerving; a wash of air the smashed into Aquilamon throwing the stout eagle backward in a maelstrom of wind.

Miyako's knuckles turned white as her fingers dug into Aquilamon's back. Aquilamon opened his massive wings and pushed forward against the wind, to stabilize himself. Gigadramon was coming around for another try. Aquilamon growled and made a massive flap with his wings and propelled himself toward the monstrous, cybernetic dragon. Miyako gulped as she raised her mettle in preparation for another engagement with the huge dragon. She closed her eyes and then opened them. She saw a huge streak of lavender light slice across Gigadramon's mechanical wings.

"Guilty Wing!" Twin bursts of pink energy fired from the tips of the dragon's wings.

Aquilamon arched his back upward in a tight, upward, nearly stalling, ascent. The beams sizzled under Aquilamon's tail feathers.

"Blast Rings!" Aquilamon retorted as his energy rings pulsed against Gigadramon's spine. The dragon curled back around and pointed his clawed fist at Aquilamon.

"Darkside Attack!" rockets roared towards Aquilamon.

Miyako thought she was going to be sick as Aquilamon twirled around and started to swing left and right to evade the missiles being fired at him. The Airdramon seemed to have cleared out. Miyako gulped as she felt Aquilamon jolt under her and watched as the sky the world dipped downward and the white ground reared up towards her. Her pink hair whipped in her face as the ground screamed up to her.

"Dang it…where are TK AND KARI!" Miyako shouted as Aquilamon, at the last possible second, curved upward causing the snow to rush up on either side of his talons.

"Don't you wonder why the Airdramon have gotten off our tail?" Aquilamon said as he rose away from the waves of snow he was creating and curled back around.

Miyako looked up. The two Armored digimon taking on the entirety of the Airdramon, making the fight on their side nearly ten on one.

"We gotta help them," Miyako shouted.

"We have our own problems," Aquilamon retorted as he swerved hard to the left to miss a pair of energy beams directed at him. "I can't stop Gigadramon like this…I need to digivolve. Unfortunately, that means putting you down, and I can't buy us that much time."

Miyako frowned and looked around, "Maybe…not…"

"What do you mean?" Aquilamon lunged to the right as a barrage of missiles rocketed towards him.

"Look," Miyako pointed upward as Birdramon erupted into a ball of light. The orange phoenix disappeared into the light and a huge eagle-human creature flew out of the light. Its large crimson wings flapped heavily as it held its taloned fists in front of its beaked head, and trailed its eagle feet.

"That wouldn't work," Aquilamon said as he maneuvered around a wave of energy bursts. "I'm too small as Silphymon, and would lose all the advantages gained by digivolving."

"That's not what I meant," Miyako said with a snort. "Get up there where Garudamon is…"

"Ok…" Aquilamon flapped his wings and pushed himself upward towards the eagle-man.

Gigadramon continued firing attacks across Aquilamon's bow. The eagle swept left and right maintaining a rudimentary evasive flight path. Aquilamon rose over the back of Garudamon and glided behind the giant, bird-man.

"SORA!" Miyako shouted down at the girl on the back of Garudamon. "Can you spare some room?"

"I think so," Sora replied as she looked back. Miyako turned also and saw Megadramon and Gigadramon chasing after them with extreme gusto.

"Ok," Miyako looked down at Sora. "Aquilamon, bring me down, hover about a meter above Garudamon's back. From there I can jump on…"

"What!?" Aquilamon shouted as he looked back to Miyako. "Are you nuts?"

"What? Daisuke hasn't got a monopoly on inane ideas," Miyako retorted angrily. "It's this or getting blown to bits by Gigadramon!"

"Fine!" Aquilamon snorted angrily as he dropped down. The eagle looked up and grimaced at the sight of the Destiny Tree's bows getting larger in front of him. "Hurry up, we'll be in the tree soon!"

"Don't be pushy," snapped Miyako as she looked down and measured the drop. It was farther than it had looked in her mind. She took a deep breath and jumped. She bounced as she hit Garudamon and the huge, bird-man's forward motion swept Miyako's feet out from her. Sora quickly grabbed the girl and held her close.

"Are you ok?" Sora rasped in Miyako's ear.

"Scared to death…and my legs and arms are shaking…" replied Miyako between gasps for air, "but…I've felt worse…" Miyako blinked and then grabbed her D-3 and pointed it at Aquilamon. "Go for it, Aquilamon!"

"Aquilamon Armor Synthesis Digivolve to…." Aquilamon was engulfed by green and pink light and fell backward as he morphed. His Ultimate form emerged. The man with the white body suit torso and hawk-like legs complete with red feathers and scaled, and taloned feet. The visored head looked at the oncoming Gigadramon and he brandished his claws, "….Silphymon! Warrior of Love and Sincerity!"

Silphymon clenched his fist and drove into Gigadramon's oncoming head. Gigadramon instantly stopped forward momentum and his long snaking body curled tightly up into a bunch like an accordion.

Garudamon put its hand back.

"Sora, Miyako, get in my hand," The eagle-man ordered. The two girls nodded and crawled over to the extended hand. It was scaly like the foot of a bird. Garudamon gently curled the hand back and looked down at the two girls through her red and blue mask. "I think it's time we go on the offensive…"

Garudamon added drag by curling her wings forward. She turned and glared down the orange flesh dragon pursuing her. Megadramon raged forward and fired a wave of missiles at the giant, bird-man.

"Wing Blade!" Garudamon summoned a giant, phantom bird made of fire.

The apparition cut through the air, its heat making the air hiss. The phantom burned through the waves of missiles and crashed into Megadramon's chest. The huge dragon tumbled backward in a low grade tailspin. It regained its composure and curled out of the spin. Garudamon brandished her empty hand as Megadramon charged upwards, flapping his giant, lavender wings with angry thrusts up and down.

"Darkside Attack!" Megadramon thrust one of his arms forward firing a projectile up at Garudamon. The eagle faced man easily avoided the attack.

"Phoenix Claw!" Garudamon dove downward towards him and slammed his open palm on Megadramon's head. The claws flashed with flames and Megadramon howled as Garudamon slammed a foot into Megadramon's chest. The dragon arched backward, smoke rolling off its snout and eyes. Garudamon closed her wings as a red aura surrounded her body. "Wing Blade!"

The fiery apparition flew up from Garudamon's body. The phantom bird then dove down and struck Megadramon. The orange fleshed dragon was bathed in flames and burnt as it fell to the earth, dissolving into data as it dropped.

"Garudamon, let's get over to TK and Kari," Sora called up to the giant bird's head. Garudamon inclined her head and turned around gliding toward where the Airdramon were chasing Nefertimon and Pegasusmon. Miyako looked back to where Silphymon was.

Gigadramon huge compared to the small, human-sized Silphymon. The small white digimon was easily outmaneuvering the larger dragon. Strips of red energy smashed across Gigadramon's back as Silphymon rose above the purple dragon. Gigadramon twisted around. Miyako winced as a pair of purple lasers smashed into the white chested Silphymon. Silphymon charged forward and then Miyako saw a large spinning line of wind smash into Gigadramon. Silphymon rebounded off of the metallic cap on Gigadramon's head. Two energy disks swiped past Gigadramon. The dragon yowled as it fell backward. A giant, crimson burst of energy fired from Silphymon. Gigadramon arched his back as the crimson burst tore through his body exploding out of his back. The lavender dragon let out one last howl before evaporating into black dust.

Silphymon started rushing towards her and Garudamon. Miyako sighed in relief at seeing Silphymon was ok. She looked up. The Airdramon were retreating. Pegasusmon and Nefertimon were firing their beam attacks after the dragons, but didn't press the pursuit beyond that.

"We should follow them," Silphymon shouted as he landed in Garudamon's palm next to Miyako. "Something isn't right…that felt too easy. When we fought Airdramon at Format Island, they actively attacked both MegaKabuterimon…"

"And they don't seem to be going far," Garudamon stated as she pointed with her empty hand. The Airdramon were curling around the far end of the tree.

888

"V-Breath Arrow!" roared the stout, muscular blue dragons. The V-shaped attacks exploded into the snowy earth in front of Ankylomon. The sandy brown, shelled, dinosaur digimon flipped backward.

"Fire Rocket!" Flamedramon leapt forward, bathed in flame and tackled a Strikedramon.

The lithe dragon with the green dragons crashed to the ground and rolled with Flamedramon. Flamedramon pushed away but not before the lavender skinned dragon put a clawed foot into Flamedramon's exposed white stomach. The flame armored digimon crashed into the trunk of the Destiny Tree back-first. Strikedramon's muscular, but thin frame charged forward and leapt high into the air brandishing the long, sharp claws. Flamedramon grunted as he looked up, but was still too dazed to do anything about the oncoming evisceration.

"Strike…" Strikedramon's claws glowed as he pointed them towards Flamedramon.

"Electroshocker!" A ball of lightning exploded into the back of the dragon and it fell to the ground in a heap, as a huge, blue beetle rose behind it.

"Light Speed Jabbing!" A giant, walking cactus with boxing gloves on its hands was smashing blurred fists into the snout of one of the Veedramon. The blue dragon tried to cover up but the red boxing gloves found their way around the arms of the dragon, connecting with its stomach and chest.

"Megaton Press!" Ankylomon, having recovered from the last attack charged forward slamming his shoulders into a group of five Strikedramon.

The lithe dragons were crushed between Ankylomon and Destiny Tree's trunk. Flamedramon dropped down onto the snow and leapt into the air. The flame armored dragon landed on one of the Veedramon's backs. Flamedramon lifted a flame decorated gauntlet.

"Fire Knuckle!" The Veedramon howled as the fiery fist smashed between its shoulder blades.

The blue beetle dove down out of the sky, scooping up Strikedramon, tossing them at three Veedramon that were encircling the punchy cactus.

"Thanks, Kabuterimon!" the cactus shouted as the beetle flew by.

"No problem, Togemon!" the insect called back.

The dragons growled as they rose to their feet.

"Might as well stay down," Togemon said as she pulled her arms over her chest. "Because now you gotta feel my…Needle Spray!"

Togemon extend her arms quickly releasing a wave of cactus needles. The dragons yelped and jumped around and ran away as needles imbedded themselves in the earth at their feet.

"This is the last one!" Ankylomon shouted as he charged towards a blue Veedramon.

Flamedramon ran next to the spiky shelled Ankylomon. The fire dragon hopped onto Ankylomon's back.

"Let's do this one together," Flamedramon said as he clenched his gauntleted fists.

"Right," Ankylomon nodded and put his head down. "Megaton Press!"

Flamedramon leapt into the air as Ankylomon rammed his helmeted head into Veedramon's sternum. The bulky, blue dragon staggered backward. Flamedramon extended his arms and bathed himself in flame. He then spiraled towards Veedramon.

"FIRE ROCKET!" Flamedramon drove himself into Veedramon's chest. Veedramon crashed against the tree.

"Light Speed Jabbing!" Togemon rushed forward and drilled fists into the side of Veedramon's chin. A strong uppercut sent the lumbering dragon into the air.

"And the topper…" Kabuterimon hovered in the air and pulled his arms inward, gathering electrical energy, "ELECTROSHOCKER!"

An orb of lightning smashed into the airborne Veedramon and exploded, leaving nothing but smoke and dust behind.

"That was easy!" Flamedramon shouted to Daisuke.

Daisuke and the others were running down to the battle scene. Their digimon were standing before the trunk, victorious. Mimi waved to Togemon, her pink air bouncing as she ran. Iori ran to Ankylomon. The little boy inspected the dinosaur. Koushiro smiled and looked up at Kabuterimon in awe as the giant beetle landed on the snow. Daisuke punched Flamedramon's shoulder playfully and Flamedramon slapped Daisuke's back, congenially, although this planted Daisuke's face in the snow.

"That was easy as pie," Togemon said as she rubbed her boxing glove on Mimi's head.

"Pie, who's got pie?" Ankylomon looked up anxiously.

"That's a bit worrying," Koushiro said as he looked around. "They didn't put up half the fight we expected…it's like…they were just playing us…like there was…"

The snow shifted under the children's feet. A huge, serpentine head rose up out of the snow. Daisuke, Koushiro, Mimi and Iori fell backward onto the ground. The purple and red serpent hissed loudly flapping its forked tongue at the children.

"Welcome to your doooom!" hissed the serpent and laughed raspily. "Inferno Blast!" A blast of maroon flames exploded from the snow to the left of the serpent's head. The flames drove into Flamedramon throwing the Armored digimon into the air. The flame-decorated dragon glowed and reverted into a blue dragon with a tiny horn on its snout. "Inferno Blast!" a stream of maroon flames erupted from the ground to the right of the serpent and struck Togemon throwing the giant cactus away like a flyswatter striking a fly. "Inferno Blast!" another fire blast erupted from the left of the serpent's head and tossed Ankylomon like he was paperclip. Kabuterimon rose into the air and drew his arms in to collect electrical energy but the serpent only hissed at the blue beetle. "Inferno Blast!"

The serpent opened its maw and ejected a long stream of lavender flame into Kabuterimon driving the beetle into the sand. The children quickly ran to their digimon. Mimi gently touched the fleshy green surface of Togemon. Koushiro knelt down next to Kabuterimon's horned head. Iori rubbed Ankylomon's bumpy head. Daisuke knelt down by Veemon who sat up and rubbed his oversized forehead.

"Ugh, that was sneaky," grumbled Veemon as he looked up at the serpent. "Who are you!?"

"My name issss Orochimon," hissed the snake as it reared its head back. "But soon you won't care who I am! Clouds of Heaven!" The snake opened its mouth and a heavy steam rolled out of its throat. The clouds of steam flowed around the snake and shrouded the digi-destined.

"What is this stuff?" coughed Mimi as she covered her mouth and nose from the smell.

"It smells like…" Koushiro coughed as he sniffed the steam, "…sake…don't breath it in! OR else…"

"How DRY I YAM!" Daisuke hiccupped as he staggered past.

"…you'll get drunk…" Koushiro sighed covering his mouth and nose.

"Ankylomon, we have to clear out this smoke," Iori coughed, raising his D-3.

"Ankylomon Armor synthesis digivolve to…" The ankylosaur glowed and rose up into the air on his hind legs. He continued to change shape as he turned into a terra cotta doll with an hourglass figure and a large, oval head. "…Shakkoumon! Drilling Guardian of Reliability and Knowledge!"

The steam started to swirl into Shakkoumon's mouth as the clay titan started vacuuming the attack in. The shrouds of steam faded to wisps. Shakkoumon groaned as he shook his head.

"What's wrong?" Iori looked up at the terra cotta digimon.

"Everything is. wobbly," Shakkoumon stated as he hovered backward.

"Kabuterimon, get up," Koushiro commanded as he grabbed his digivice and looked at Orochimon. The snake was laughing loudly.

Kabuterimon rose into the air and Koushiro pointed his D-3 at the large blue beetle.

"Kabuterimon digivolve to…" The blue beetle's wings were pulled against its back and a red shell covered its back. His arms beefed up and his horn elongated and fanned out in a butterfly shape at the tip. "…MegaKabuterimon!"

"Togemon, you too," Mimi said as she lifted her D-3 as well. The cactus rose to its feet.

"Togemon digivolve to…" The eye and mouth holes that contributed to the cactus's face exploded with light as the tan botanical fluff on top of its head sparkled and bloomed into a pink flower. The bloom opened revealing a fairy about the size of a human. The shell that was Togemon dispersed into pink data dust that swirled around the fairy. The fairy had a pink unbloomed flower on its head and a flower petal dress around its hips. A pink dress covered its torso and two pairs of green, leafy wings buzzed from the fairy's back. The flower child lifted its thin arms complete with the leafy wristbands. "…Lillymon!"

"Daisuke!?" Veemon yelped as he hopped around the staggering, brown haired boy.

"Oh look…it's a gummy bear…." Cheered Daisuke as he picked the little blue dragon and licked its cheek, "Bleah…tastes like foot!"

"HEY!" yelped Veemon as he struggled in Daisuke's arms.

Veemon growled as Daisuke continued to snuggle him and finally slapped the boy across the face. Daisuke dropped Veemon and blinked looking at the dragonet.

"Woah…that was a trip…" Daisuke whispered as he shook the cobwebs from his head.

"Inferno Blast!" A maroon firestorm roared upward towards MegaKabuterimon. The giant red scarab groaned as he was caught in the flames.

"Don't you think…?" Veemon pointed at Orochimon.

"Definitely," Daisuke nodded pointing his blue D-3 at Veemon

"Veemon digivolve to…" Veemon grew as the light filled him. His snout extended and the horn there curved upward. A pair of wings sprouted from his back as he crossed his arms over his 'X' tattooed chest. "ExVeemon!" Daisuke nodded and a red and blue stream of light circled around ExVeemon. "ExVeemon Armor Synthesis Digivolve to…" Black gauntlets covered ExVeemon's hands and green armor covered his torso. Extra wings sprouted from the dragon's back as a pair of hip cannons flashed into existence on his waist. "…Paildramon! Thunderous Firestorm of Friendship and Courage!"

"Ssssso…" The serpent looked at the four Ultimate digimon hovering in front of him. "It'sssss you four againsssst ussss eight…."

"Eight?" Iori looked at Orochimon with a confused look.

"Yeah," The serpent laughed. "Usss eight!"

The ground shook again as seven huge serpents rose out of the snow.

"Of course," Koushiro said snapping his fingers, "Orochimon is from that story about Susano-o no Mikoto; it was an eight headed serpent that captured a princess or something…"

"Susano-o promised to save the woman and defeated the dragon, pulling a sword from the tail," Mimi said, nodding emphatically. The others looked at her, a bit surprised. Mimi looked at the boys, "What? I like the kind of story where the hero sweeps in to save the girl!"

"He got Orochi drunk," Iori said, quietly with a touch of aggravation, "and then killed the beast in its sleep."

"Well, that is slightly less heroic…" Mimi said putting her fingers on her chin.

"Enough of this!" roared the center head of the eight-headed beast. The eight heads reared up, "Inferno BLAST!"

Mimi yelped as Lillymon grabbed her and lifted her away from the flames. Shakkoumon dove in front of the flames and Paildramon snatched up Daisuke. MegaKabuterimon dropped down and crouched between Koushiro and the wave of flames, putting his heavy, red wing casing against the flames.

"Hot, hot, hot!" MegaKabuterimon yelped as the flames washed over his back.

"Our turn!" Daisuke shouted and pointed down to Orochimon. Paildramon put Daisuke on his shoulders.

"Desperado Blaster!" Paildramon shouted as he swung his hip cannons up and released a spitfire blast of energy pellets into Orochimon. The multi-headed serpent twisted back and forth as the heads evaded the energy pellets.

"Flower Cannon!" Lillymon put Mimi down and swung around.

The leafy wristband on her right hand bloomed into a huge flower with a cannon muzzle hidden in its center. The cannon fired and a green burst exploded into furry chest of Orochimon.

"Justice Beam!" Shakkoumon narrowed his heavy, clay eyelids and a pair of red lasers sliced into one of Orochimon's left heads with a mechanical jaw.

"Horn Buster!" MegaKabuterimon turned around and a bolt of orange lightning fired from his horn and struck the middle head.

The other heads instantly retaliated by firing blasts of maroon flames at the digimon. The four Ultimates retreated as best they could but with eight heads it was hard to evade the flames.

"This won't work," Iori frowned as he watched Shakkoumon attempt to Kachina Bomb Orochimon and then subsequently watch the eight heads swerve around the spinning, clay discs. "There are too many targets…"

"Thunder Blast!" Paildramon thrust a fist forward releasing an arching flash of lightning at Orochimon. The serpent snorted at the attack as its heads twisted around and fired a concentrated blast of flame at Paildramon.

"I got it," Koushiro looked over to Mimi, "Lillymon can use that rope thing…"

"Huh?" Mimi looked over at the cinnamon haired boy.

"The flower rope thing!" Koushiro said swirling his finger in the air.

"I know what he's getting at!" Lillymon said with a smile. "You guys have to rein in the outer heads and I'll tie them off!"

"You heard Lillymon," Koushiro shouted up at MegaKabuterimon.

The beetle nodded with a grunt and jetted forward. "Horn Buster!"

MegaKabuterimon's lightning bolts forced the outer, left-most heads to rear up high in the air.

"Justice Beam!" Shakkoumon fired crimson rods of light at the right-most heads.

The right-most heads had a similar reaction as the left-most, rearing up defensively.

"Now!" shouted Iori as he looked up at Orochimon, with all his heads lined up together.

"Flower Wreath!" Lillymon rushed up to Orochimon and then swinging around the multiple-headed snake began to lasso the heads. She became a green and pink blur as she revolved around the snake's necks. She suddenly appeared and yanked a leafy rope tight. The eight heads were lashed together with a flowered vine.

"Now, Paildramon!" Daisuke shouted, looking at Paildramon.

"Desperado Blaster!" Paildramon gripped his cannons as they fired down on the clumped together heads. Orochimon roared as the bolts of energy smashed into his collective necks and furry chest. Orochimon's heads then collapsed on the ground, flinging earth and snow into the air. The giant, mythic hydra then exploded into data.

Daisuke punched the air and cheered as Paildramon landed. The other digimon surrounded Paildramon. Daisuke leapt down as the other children ran toward him.

"Where are they going?" Mimi asked as she pointed up towards the sky. Daisuke and the others looked up and saw Garudamon and the others flying around the far side of the tree.

"Let's follow them," Daisuke shouted as he stepped on Paildramon's foot.

"You can ride with me, Mimi," Koushiro said as he extended his hand to the pink haired girl.

"Uh, ok," Mimi said taking Koushiro's hand. MegaKabuterimon picked the two children.

Shakkoumon lifted Iori up to his shoulder. Iori looked at the others, "This day has gone reasonably well…"

"Too well," Koushiro said with a frown. "I know we should be happy but this feels wrong."

888

The intruders on their purification were moving west, southwest. The SEALSdramon were on a follow, do not engage command. Tankdramon rolled forward through the underbrush. Trees in its way were destroyed by firepower. The Data ark was theirs and all that was left was the retrieval of the data condensation core and to finish the purification of the island. Tankdramon unit 003 was retrieving the condensation core, and this Tankdramon was fully appreciating the fact that it was closing in on the last things standing in the way of full purification and that it was going to be the one to exterminate the last of the infestation.

The intruders were a problem though. They took out over half of Tankdramon unit 003's SEALSdramon and temporarily incapacitated its own SEALSdramon. The intruder was powerful, but it was an intruder and all intruders would be exterminated in order to fulfill all requirements given by the Great Gods.

He continued forward the blue tinted images of the island glowing in front of him. Radar systems detected the flying infestations. Tankdramon continued to rumble forward. The flying infestations were slowing down. Tankdramon stopped and watched them as they circled a certain area and then landed.

"It – is – time – to – en-gage – the en-e-my," Tankdramon hissed in its mechanical squawk. A sonic pulse rippled through the earth as nine SEALSdramon stomped their first step forward.

888

"There! There!" Keiko yelped, pointing down at the forest. "She's down there!"

Ken nodded and pointed down to the ground. DinoBeemon tilted downward and buzzed towards a small opening in the forest. Unimon dove after the bug. They breached the leaves of the canopy.

"Fireball!"

"Dark Claw!"

"Subzero Ice Punch!"

"Super Thunder Strike!"

DinoBeemon and Unimon dipped and dove and ascended, attempting to evade the attacks flying up to them.

"Stop! We're friends!" shouted Ken loudly waving his hands.

The attacks stopped and Unimon and DinoBeemon lowered peacefully through the canopy. The tyrant insect touched down in front of a group of four digimon. Unimon landed behind DinoBeemon.

"Unimon…?" a red rodent walked forward. "That's not you; is it…?"

"Not your Unimon, no," replied the winged equine.

"Ken!" The rodent leapt forward and looked up at him, "You came, but it's a little late, though! The entirety of the island has been…"

"I know, Elecmon," stated quietly as he looked at the egg that Elecmon held. He turned his head to Keiko, "Keiko, is that…"

Keiko walked forward and knelt before Elecmon. She brushed her dark brown hair out of her eyes and she reached forward. Elecmon pulled the egg back slightly but he looked into her eyes and he stopped pulling back. Keiko's fingers touched the smooth shell egg. It had crescents designing it. Keiko drew the egg close and hugged it, caressing the shell. The egg rattled and then exploded with a huge puff of smoke. Keiko looked down and smiled broadly as her eyes fell on the small, snow-white ball of fluff with its huge ears.

"YukimiBotamon!" Keiko giggled, hugging the creature tightly.

Ken smiled broadly as he looked at Keiko and her partner. He remembered when he and Wormmon reunited. A warm bubble of compassion rose in his chest. He was about to say something when the bushes rustled. Ken and DinoBeemon turned around as Raiamon and Musyamon broke out of the forest. The lion, Raiamon, snarled as he looked back at the forest.

"They're coming," Raiamon growled as he turned back to Ken. "I can smell them…"

"They've been tracking us," Musyamon nodded his demonic face frowning angrily.

"You led them to us!" a ghost rushed forward to Ken. "You've killed us!"

"Bakemon, stop," A large, rotund snowman said as he walked forward.

A man doused in flames surveyed the shadows of the forest with his blue eyes, "They won't take long to get here…"

"Then we should get out of here!" the ghost shouted.

"Frigimon, Meramon, Bakemon, please," Elecmon walked up to Ken, "Can you stop them?"

"I don't know; if you mean the SEALSdramon, then maybe," Ken said looking to the forest.

"They are close," Raiamon said as he turned around. "Takashi, Hiroshi, go to Ken and Keiko…."

The two boys on the lion's back hopped off and ran to Ken and Keiko as ordered. The forest suddenly was filled with the sounds of cracking and snapping trees. The four indigenous digimon started to get skittish as the sounds got louder.

"YOU – ARE – SUR-ROUND-ED!" the screeches shouted from the shadows of the forest. "DO – NOT – MOOOOVE!"

"What are we going to do?" Bakemon gulped as he looked around into the shadows.

"DinoBeemon…" Ken whispered softly. "You need to open us a window…"

"Ok, Ken," The insect turned slowly.

"DO NOT MOVE!" screeched the voices simultaneously.

"Irritant…" DinoBeemon's wings started to whirr but the surrounding force wasn't going to have it and blue bursts of energy started exploding out of the forest in all directions.

Ken and the other kids dove for the ground as energy bolts erupted around them. DinoBeemon staggered back and then pushed himself over the children defensively.

"Unimon!" yelped Noriko as she saw the winged unicorn struck by a burst. The horse reverted to Penguinmon.

"Thunder of the King!" roared Raiamon, firing a bolt of lightning into the forest. There was a gurgling, squawky scream along with the thunderous sonic pulse in response to the lightning strike.

"Irritant Buzz!" DinoBeemon snarled as his wings really buzzed releasing a wave of sonic discord into the forest.

"I – HAVE – LOST – CON-TACT – WITH – THE WESTERN TROOPS!" screeched a voice from the forest.

"That's your cue," Ken said, grabbing Keiko by the waist and pulling her to her feet. "You and the others run to the nearest digi-port, there's one about a hundred meters to the west! I'll hold off the SEALSdramon. The rest of you digimon just run!"

"But we can help!" Takashi yelped, looking up to Ken.

"Yeah, we'll help!" Hiroshi shouted.

"EX-TERMINATE ALL LIFE-FORMS IN THE CLEAR-ING!" Blue energy exploded out of the forest.

Raiamon leapt backward as the energy bursts hailed down from in front and on the sides of him. One of the bursts struck Raiamon's golden muscled flank and the mighty lion roared as his body was consumed by light and he reverted to Mushroomon. Musyamon tried deflecting the energy bursts with his swords but there were too many bursts coming from too many directions. Three burst converged on the shogun and he collapsed into a burst of light that turned into a yellow lightning striped worm.

"Fireball!" Meramon flung fireballs out of his hands into the dark shadows of the forest.

"GO! NOW!" shouted Ken as he pushed Keiko and the others out from under DinoBeemon.

The Dark Spore children staggered forward as energy bursts exploded into DinoBeemon. Their Rookie digimon bounded next to them looked back and then pushed the children into the forest.

"Irritant Buzz!" A second sonic stream was thrust from DinoBeemon's wings into the forest.

"Elecmon, take the others and run," Ken said as DinoBeemon circled around and fired another burst of sonic interference into the forest.

"But you…" Elecmon started.

"Just go!" Ken shouted as he turned around. The bursts died down as DinoBeemon finished his circuit.

"Stay – where – you – are!" shouted a voice, deeper than the SEALSdramon, but still squawky and unnerving.

"Run," Ken said, not looking at Elecmon. The forest crackled and rustled.

Elecmon and the other digimon backed away and then ran, leaving Ken and DinoBeemon alone.

"You – are – a – hu-man," said the voice as the undergrowth in front of Ken rustled. The front of a tank chassis pushed through the bushes, followed by a pair of energy cannons and then a pair of older style Gatling cannons. Atop of the tank chassis was a triangular head decorated like the head of a dragon. "You – are – a – di-gi-des-tined!"

Ken glared at the tank digimon as it continued forward. "What do you want?"

"Pur-i-fi-cation, ex-termination! You – are – an – in-fes-tation!" the tank said, coldly, "I – want – the – in-fes-tation – to – be – de-stroyed!"

"Why? Why can't you just live with people who surrender to you?" Ken looked at the tank angrily.

"They – will – con-tam-i-nate – the – reign – of – the – GODDSSS!" the tank screeched. "We – can-not – al-low – the gods' – reign – to be – con-tam-i-nated!"

"So you kill anyone that's not like you, not like a dragon," Ken narrowed his eyes as he glared at the tank.

"That – is – cor-rect," the lights on the top of the head of the tank blinked with the syllables. "Non-dra-gon – life – is – ex-pend-able. As – we – con-verse, the – re-main-ing SEALS-dra-mon – are – hunt-ing – down – the – ex-pend-able – life-forms!"

Ken's eyes widened as he took a step back and turned.

"DO NOT MOVE!" roared the tank, loudly. A blue and green, striped energy beam exploded in front of Ken.

DinoBeemon growled, moving forward. "Don't hurt a hair on his head!"

"I – do – not – take – or-ders – from – in-fer-i-or – life – forms!" replied the tank as it pointed its energy cannons at DinoBeemon.

"I'll show you inferior life form!" DinoBeemon's wings throbbed. "Irritant Buzz!"

A sonic pulse smashed into the tank's body.

"Your – of-fen-sive – a-bil-i-ties – are – in-ef-fec-tive," announced the tank. "Tank-dra-mon – u-nits – are – in-su-lat-ed – a-gainst – son-ic – in-ter-fer-ence."

"Fine, then deal with this!" DinoBeemon glowed as he vibrated intensely. "Hell's Masquerade!"

DinoBeemon thrust forward as a stream of pink light. DinoBeemon phased through Tankdramon and then sliced back and forth through the tank. DinoBeemon sliced upward through the tank and hovered above the beast, re-solidifying.

"Ex-terminate!" the tank shifted its energy cannons and fired upward into DinoBeemon.

The tyrant bee roared as his body was bathed in bluish green light. DinoBeemon crashed to the ground in front of Ken and reverted to Minomon. Ken ran forward, grabbing up the little grub digimon.

Ken turned and ran from the mechanical beast behind him.

"DO NOT MOVE! STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" screeched Tankdramon as energy bolts exploded on either side of Ken.

888

Ruki leaned back and tapped her foot on the ground to the rhythm of the music being pumped into her head via a pair of earplug headphones. Her head bobbed slightly as the music went into a wordless riff. The sun was warming the air considerably. It was going to be a warm October, the humidity wasn't yet unendurable but there was a sense that the afternoon could yet be unpleasant. Her blue eyes flashed upward as she looked up at a large oak tree that stood across the walking path from her bench.

"Where are they?" Ruki grumbled as she looked at her watch. "They said they were going to go pick up an egg and get back…it's been two hours…"

Just as the redhead made the statement; the laptop computer beside her glowed, brightly. Ruki pulled her headphones from her ears and heard the computer beep and click. The light spread forward from the screen and deposited four children on the pavement with four digimon. Ruki ran forward as the light continued to glow from the screen. The kids got up and looked in fright at the screen behind them.

"What's happened? Where's that Ken kid?" Ruki shouted as the light continued to squeal from the computer screen.

"Ruki! GET DOWN!" Ruki didn't have time to look as a weight crashed down on her and the other children.

Ruki lifted her head in time to see lots of bluish blasts fly overhead. The laptop screen faded as the digi-port closed tightly behind the blasts. The weight lifted from her. Ruki stood up and helped the other kids back to their feet. She turned and looked to the lithe, bipedal fox standing behind the other children. A number of people witnessed the event and were gasping and murmuring as they pointed at Ruki's cousin's friends and then to the fox.

"Renamon…" Ruki whispered quietly. "Thanks…"

"It was my pleasure, Ruki," the fox inclined its head and then disappeared in a swirl of leafy wind.

"Where's that Ken kid?" Ruki persisted as she dusted off her jeans.

"He stayed behind," Keiko said as she looked down at the small snowball in her hands, sadly.

"Why?" Ruki didn't like the look on the girl's face. "What happened?"

"We were attacked…Ken's holding them back so we could escape…" said the smallest boy.

"We can't leave yet, he could be right behind us…" The little girl with the short hair said.

"Noriko's right, we can't just strand him," The older boy nodded. "Please?"

"Of course," Ruki nodded as she looked back at the screen of the laptop and looked at the small box labeled digi-port.

888

Ken continued to stumble forward, tripping on roots, rocks and divots in the earth. All the while the sound of the heavy, diesel-like engine rumbled behind him. The tank had decided to stop firing on him, evidently pursuing him was enough, or the trees were providing enough in the way of interference to keep it from getting a proper lock.

"Ken…" Minomon whimpered, as he looked up at the boy's blue eyes. "I could try to…digivolve again…"

"And get hurt again?" Ken replied, sharply, making Minomon wince. "Don't worry, it's not far now…"

Ken continued to run. It was times like these that he was exceptionally glad that he was a soccer player and that his legs were used to running. The forest was so eerily silent that it was unpleasant. The only sound was the intermittent hiss of tree leaves in the breeze, the clack of dead branches on each other and the monotonous rumble of the tank's engine.

Ken ran around a large tree. Suddenly the bark of the tree exploded with a blue flash. Ken slid to a stop. The hiss of joint actuators met his ears as a SEALSdramon moved out from behind a tree. Its spear was pointed at him.

"EXTERMINATE!" the spearhead burned with blue energy.

Ken dove for the ground as the blast smashed into the tree behind him. Ken scrambled as the SEALSdramon pointed the spear downward. Ken got to his feet and sprinted as another blast exploded at his heels. Ken's feet slipped and slid as he tried to get momentum on the leafy undergrowth. Fortunately his clumsy attempts to get a sprint proved sufficiently evasive to avoid being blasted by the SEALSdramon's attacks. Ken dove for the cover of a bush.

Ken took a deep breath. His heart thumped in his ears. He could hear the SEALSdramon closing. Ken stood on his haunches and scurried like a mouse in the bushes trying to slip away but the SEALSdramon seemed to be following him. Ken grimaced; the red eye that the creature possessed had looked mechanical. Ken surmised then that it must be used to get multiple sensor readings, and probably could trace body heat.

"DO NOT MOVE!" announced the tank's voice from behind Ken. Ken froze. "WE – CAN – SEE – YOU – DI-GI-DES-TINED! AT-TEMPTS – TO – ES-CAPE – WILL – BE – MET – WITH EXTERMINATION!"

"Oh, yeah and if I stay here you won't execute me," Ken grumbled from his concealed spot in the bushes.

"If – you – run; we – may – miss!" announced the tank. Ken heard its engines rev up and could hear its wheels move forward. "If – we – miss; you – may – not – die – efficiently."

Ken frowned and then turned. The digi-port couldn't be more than twenty meters away. He could sprint for it.

"I think I'd prefer not dying at all," Ken shouted as he bounded forward into a sprint.

"EXTERMINATE!" screeched the SEALSdramon as blue pulses of electrical energy exploded into the trees ahead of him.

A streak of twisting blue and green energy burned into the ground to the left of Ken. The engines of the tank revved as it rumbled forward.

"Ken…" Minomon looked up weakly.

"Shh, nearly…" Ken looked up, he could see it. A computer screen was ahead. It was so close, but then he saw them in the trees. SEALSdramon were in the trees, their spears pointed at the computer screen. Ken stopped. "…there…"

Ken narrowed his eyes. The engines were rumbling behind him. He looked down at Minomon. The little grub looked like he was in exceptional pain. Ken didn't have a choice.

Ken reached down and grabbed his D-3 and leapt forward into the clearing. The air erupted with energy as explosions ripped into the ground. One explosion blew up in front of him throwing off his momentum and sent him collapsing onto the earth. Ken heard the SEALSdramon crash down from the trees. There were three of them. The tank rolled up behind them and pointed its energy cannons at Ken. Another SEALSdramon marched up behind Tankdramon.

"You – will – be – ex-terrrrminated!" announced the tank with its grating voice.

Ken backed up, scooting across the ground. His back rubbed up against the smooth glass computer monitor screen. The SEALSdramon the lone Tankdramon closed in around him. The SEALSdramons' spears buzzed with sparking electrical energy. The tank's energy cannons hummed as they charged.

"EXTERMINATE!" screeched one of the SEALSdramon.

"EXTERMINATE!" roared yet another.

"EXTERMINATE!" cheered a third.

"EXTERMINATE!" yelled a fourth with even more fervor than the first three.

"EXTERMINATE!" the tank's voice was filled with greedy anticipation

"Well…" Ken gulped as he looked up at the digimon advancing on him, "I guess…this is goodbye…" Ken made a slight upward motion with his hand, "DIGIPORT OPEN!"

"YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE!" screeched the tank as the computer monitor's light engulfed Ken, yanking him out of the Digital World just as the tank and the SEALSdramon opened fire.

888

Paildramon, MegaKabuterimon, Shakkoumon and Lillymon rounded the huge pine tree. As they did so, they saw twin pairs of lights glow into existence. Daisuke winced as he looked down. Two angels were hanging in the air, a female angel with a pink ribbon and a wide-shouldered, male angel with a tall, lavender helm. A giant, half eagle, half humanoid was hovering in the air next to a smaller, cybernetic man with avian lower limbs.

MegaKabuterimon jetted next to the giant bird-man. "Garudamon, what's going on?"

"Look," said the eagle as he pointed down to the snowy earth with a taloned finger.

"This is not good," Koushiro stated as Paildramon glided next to the head of the giant, red scarab.

"What?" Daisuke asked as he looked down.

A huge, metal creature was standing on a ridge, facing the tree. It had a toaster-shaped head made of a dark black metal. The rest of its body was silvery with multiple, thick cords running coolants and lubricants to its mechanical joints. Its two front limbs were different. The left limb sported a hand with three thick, clamp-like claws with a barrel to some sort of weapon in its palm. The right limb had a simple four, metal clawed hand. Its chest was a single box of thick steel. Its neck was sectioned and extendable. Its back was dominated by a pair of giant, turbine-like cannons with hoses running up to the cannons.

"Machinedramon," Koushiro whispered, as he looked down at the scene with a frown.

"He's not alone either," Silphymon stated as he pointed a white, clawed finger down to the other creature standing shoulder to shoulder with Machinedramon.

"I've never seen him before," The female angel stated as she looked down.

The creature was the same height as Machinedramon, but it was covered in red armor. It also stood upright on its hind legs, unlike Machinedramon, who was supporting its weight on its front legs. Machinedramon's companion had a rounder, more oval head with a large horn projecting from its snout. The arms were different like with Machinedramon. The left arm had specialized, blunted, but insanely long, claws, whereas the right arm was more generally clawed. The red digimon seemed much more organic with portions of crimson flesh exposed to the air from under metal armor. The back of the red dragon supported a power pack as well as two, long barreled cannons that looked as if they could swivel into firing position. Currently the cannons were folded back and the barrels pointed to the ground behind the dragon.

"We're in trouble," Takeru said. Both he and Hikari were hitching a ride with Sora and Miyako on Garudamon. "Machinedramon's a Mega digimon…and I bet that his buddy is one, too…"

"It may be wise to retreat," Iori said quietly.

"No," Daisuke shouted. "No retreating this time! We can handle a couple of buckets of bolts! We could handle Black WarGreymon and there were only three of us, we can sure as heck handle two rust buckets!"

The other children looked at him in disbelief.

"Are you nuts?" Miyako shouted from Garudamon. Silphymon flicked a glance at Miyako. The girl didn't notice.

"Fine, we run away, they blow the Destiny Tree to heck…" Daisuke said crossing his arms and pouting. "Let's let them destroy both worlds!"

"I'm not saying that!" Miyako shouted clenching her fists. "It's just that…it's pointless to fight a futile fight!"

"Oh well, a futile fight…" Daisuke said with an heir of smugness. "Let me call MaloMyotismon and Daemon and tell them nowadays we don't do futile fights!"

"Daisuke, that was different!" Miyako growled.

"Was it, Miyako?" Daisuke glared back at the girl.

"Well, first off we had Imperialdramon," Iori said in his minute fashion.

"I think we can do this," Daisuke said frantically, "and if we put our heads to it…we can do anything…"

"Really…" Takeru started. The other children looked to the blonde haired boy as he tapped his chin. "We'd only have to hold them off from attacking the tree…Hikari, send a message to Yamato…tell him we need him. Send one to Tai, too, just in case."

"I can't believe we're even thinking about doing this," Miyako said in frustration. "What part of facing off against two, big, Mega digimon don't you comprehend!?"

"The same part that says, 'if we don't then we may as well kiss our butts goodbye'," Daisuke said sharply.

"It won't be safe," Lillymon said as she buzzed around MegaKabuterimon. "You kids should hang back; we don't know how bad things will get."

Paildramon, Shakkoumon, MegaKabuterimon and Garudamon glided to the ground and landed, dropping the children off. The four digimon then rose into the air. Garudamon, MegaKabuterimon and Paildramon rendezvoused with MagnaAngemon, Angewomon and Lillymon. Shakkoumon glided around the tree, taking up a defensive position between Machinedramon and his crony and the conifer.

"Let's just hope that Matt or Tai get here in time," Takeru said as he watched the Ultimate digimon moved forward.

888

The data condensation core was in place in GigaSeadramon's mouth. The data ark was retrieved and loaded. The remains of the SEALSdramon were marching into the massive maw of the blocky sea dragon. Tankdramon 002 and Tankdramon 003 rolled forward.

"Mis-sion – com-plete!" announced Tankdramon 002 as it rolled forward.

"Life-forms – on – island – e-liminated!" announced Tankdramon 001. "Dra-mon – are – vic-torious!"

"De-mon – tech-nology – will – make – our – dom-i-nance – com-plete!" announced Tankdramon 002. "We – will – be – un-stop-pable! We – will – be – un-break-able! WE WILL BE LORDS OF THE DIGITAL WORLD! WE WILL BE THE SUUUU-PREME BEEE-INGS OF THIS WORLD! NOTH-ING WILL STAND IN OUR WAY!"

"ALL IN-FERIOR LIFE FORMS WILL BE EX-TERRRRMINATED!" screeched Tankdramon 001. "ALL NON-DRAMON LIFE WILL BE EX-PENDED! ON-LY DRAMON LIFE DE-SERVES EX-ISSSTENSSSCE! THE IN-FEST-AAAA-TIONS WILL BE CLEARED FOR DRA-MON LIFE! THOSE WHO STAND IN OUR WAY WILL BE EX-TERMINATED!"

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" the SEALSdramon chorused in response.

"DRA-MON CONQUER AND DE-STROY!" shouted the two Tankdramon as they rolled into GigaSeadramon's mouth. "DRA-MON CONQUER AND DE-STROY!"

"CONQUER AND DESTROY!" The SEALSdramon howled as GigaSeadramon drew upwards from the beach and started to close its mouth. The chorus of the SEALSdramon could still be heard as the sea dragon closed its mouth. "CONQUER AND DESTROY! CONQUER AND DESTROY! CONQUER AND DESTROY!"

GigaSeadramon sealed his mouth closed. The blue beast then slipped back underneath the waves, leaving no clues that the massive sea creature was ever there.

888

Ken looked up at the five faces looking down at him. Minomon was lying on his chest.

"You're alive!" Keiko shouted as she pounced, hugging him tightly.

"Hmmf! HMMMF!" yelped Minomon as Keiko squeezed Ken.

"Ok, Keiko, ok!" Ken said as he wriggled out of the girl's embrace. "You're smothering Minomon."

The girl blushed and then stood back up and extended her hand down to Ken. Ken smiled and took the hand and then with help got to his feet.

"I'm glad to see you're all ok," Ken said as he dusted his T-shirt off.

"We were worried," Hiroshi said as he looked at Ken, "you took a long time getting back…"

"I had a troop of those…things chasing me," Ken said quietly. "It took a little longer than expected. Either way, we're all relatively safe now that we're back. All in all, everything was a success…considering the fact that we weren't expecting to drop into the middle of a no-man's-land."

"But File Island," Noriko said as she pointed to the computer.

Ken looked down at the ground. "It was over before we got there. Even if we'd pushed the SEALSdramon and their boss back; they'd have just come back when we wouldn't have been able to stop them."

"So, what now?" The redheaded cousin of Keiko asked her blue eyes burrowing into him. "You're just going to throw up your arms and walk away? It sounds like you never even considered the chance of winning or the chance of making them come to justice."

"You don't understand, Ruki," Keiko sputtered as she straightened her posture. Keiko walked up to her cousin. "We were outnumbered, we were…out muscled…and there was no one left when we got there!"

"I thought you said these digi-destined kids were strong and brave and all that stuff. You said that if anyone could protect you and your friends it'd be him and his other friends," Ruki said with a tone of disbelief, "I just see some kid who had no intent on doing anything than running away in the first place…"

"I would've liked to see you do better, Ruki!" Keiko fired back at the redhead, angrily. "You didn't even go!"

"Keiko, don't worry about it," Ken looked up. He held Minomon with his left arm. "You should get home and give YukimiBotamon some food…the faster you feed her; the faster she'll evolve into Nyaromon."

Ken heard the girl sniffled as he turned away and started to walk back home.

"Ken, don't go! I'm sorry!" He heard Keiko, but Ken didn't really care.

He just wanted to go home. Keiko, Ruki, none of them understood how frustrating this was. The Great Dragons were blowing them out of the water at every front. Villages were burning, islands sinking, entire regions were being upturned and they, the digi-destined, saviors of the Digital World, were powerless, ineffective, and usually no where to be seen. Daisuke never let anyone know, but Ken could see it in his moods, and hear it in the brown haired boy's voice. Daisuke was feeling it even more than the others. He wasn't used to feeling this ultimately impotent. Even when he failed he would always find the bright spot.

Ken walked through the metal gates of the park and looked up at a gray cloud passing over the midmorning sun. There wasn't a bright spot. Ken knew that Daisuke knew it, but was either too proud or too duty bound to say anything. It would only be a matter of weeks, maybe days and the dragons would lay claim to every sector of the Digital World. They controlled the data looms of all four Primary Villages. They had the Dark Digi-core, and they were already manufacturing Mega digimon.

Ken saw a can on the ground and he swung his foot forward, launching the can high into the air. It disappeared down the street, clattering as it returned to the earth.

No one could know what it was like to be the last thread between the destroyers and the destroyed. No one could know what it was like to be impotent against those that sought out destruction. No one could know what it was like to see innocence being slaughtered for no reason at all.

888

Machinedramon and his companion, Chaosdramon stood stoically, as they were assaulted by the full firepower of the destined digimon. Electrical surges, bursts of natural energy, beams of justice, heavenly arrows, phantoms of heat, spitfire bursts of energy, static discharges even an attempt to remove their souls, it was all impotent against their august power.

Eight Ultimate digimon loomed in between them and the tree. The lower ranking dragons had been called away, their survey mission was over and the two, draconic Megas didn't need to worry about a handful of insignificant Ultimates. The red scarab was charging forward, its horn was lowered as it was going to gore Machinedramon.

Machinedramon rose up on its haunches and lifted its left arm with its heavier claws. The claws spun into a drill. The beetle continued forward, roaring loudly. The scarab's horn sparked with electrical energy.

"Horn Buster!" a jolt of orange lightning struck the metal casing of Machinedramon's chest.

The grounded and insulated innards of the casing weren't affected by the burst and Machinedramon barely felt the attack's momentum against him. The massive scarab was still hurdling towards him. It, however, would have the mass to force him backward, and the insect probably had extensive physical strength, at least enough to hold him, temporarily, in a fisticuffs style scuffle. It wouldn't come to that though. Machinedramon smashed his spinning claws into the side of the beetle's horn. The scarab pitched heavily towards the right, Machinedramon then thrust his other clawed appendage upwards throwing the off balanced beetle up into the air. The steel dragon then pointed his left arm upward and opened his clawed hand, revealing the gun port cushioned in the left hand's palm.

"Dragon Fire!" A comet of flame erupted into the beetle's upward tumbling body.

The bug wasn't destroyed, but it was in pain. It quickly rolled out of the flames and jetted away from Machinedramon. The metal dragon watched as the charred scarab retreated back to its accomplices.

Chaosdramon stepped forward and lifted its heavy, long clawed, left arm. The claws reluctantly came open with a spark. The claws were in a simple, triangular formation. Chaosdramon heaved the claw up and pointed it at the pair of angels gliding in the sky. A stream of lavender energy bounced from one claw to the next until a triangle of energy hovered between the claws, using them as vertices. Each point of the triangle released a stream into the three-sided energy stream's epicenter. A ball of energy formed in the triangle's center and then with a forward thrust.

"Chaos CRUSHER!" A stream of high density plasma roared upwards toward the two, winged, humanoid digimon.

The larger of the two, a male, rushed in front of the slighter, female angel. He swept an arm in a huge circle and a large golden portcullis formed in the air. The portal opened revealing a shimmering, silvery dimension beyond. The plasma stream was pulled toward the portal. The dark purple energy sizzled into the silvery dimension.

Machinedramon dropped down to all fours and arched his back, pointing his vertebral cannons forward. He pumped water through the electrolysis machine at the rear of the cannons and then filtered the hydrogen from the oxygen ions. The hydrogen was put into a small container in the cannon, where it was it was exposed to high temperature. The heated ionized hydrogen quickly sizzled, as a volatile plasma within his cannons. He turned slightly to point the cannons at the angels. The silvery void in the male angel's portal was turning a muddy purple as Chaosdramon's attack spilled into its dimension.

"Giga Cannon!" Two blasts of churning, high temperature plasma sizzled through the air.

The male angel attempted to move his gate to intercept the twin volleys, but Chaosdramon's attack seemed to have increased the gate's weight. The angel seemed to be unable to shift the gate even minutely without the greatest of strain. The female angel pointed her arm forward a feather, wing-shaped bow flapped from her wrists. A bolt of white light exploded from the feminine angel's wrist slicing through the sky as an energy arrow.

The arrow exploded into one of the Giga Cannon's emissions, but it only budged the trajectory minutely. There was a flash as the two bursts exploded into the angel. The ground shook with the thunder. The two angels tumbled through the air. A green-armored dragon and a giant bird-man dove down, catching the angels. That's when the male angel's gate failed. The energy that it had captured ruptured the gate's walls and rushed out of the portcullis like water out of a dam. The bird, the dragon and the two angels were caught in the deluge of lavender energy that drilled them towards the ground.

All that was left were the two small digimon, the cyborg and the fairy, the beetle, which was still smoking from its last offensive, and a clay digimon that stood emotionlessly directly in front of the tree. The fairy and the cyborg were zipping back and forth across the airspace.

They then drove forward together. Machinedramon turned his toaster-shaped can of a head to Chaosdramon. The red beast didn't flinch or show any concern. Machinedramon turned back to the two oncoming attackers.

The fairy had pink flowers on its head and hips, and a pink blossom cannon pointed at him. The cyborg had a white fuzzy torso with a humanoid face augmented with cat-like ears and the red feathered legs of a hawk. The cyborg drew a static field into its palms.

"Flower Cannon!" The fairy suddenly pulled back pointing the cannon forward. She used to the cannon's kickback to propel her retreat.

"Static Force!" The cyborg pushed its palms forward releasing the crimson burst of static energy.

The static attack converged with the green, nature attack. The converged attacks ballooned into a large, dark-orange ball of light that smashed into Machinedramon. The metal dragon roared as he felt his chest compress. His front legs left the ground as he was pushed backward by the combined force of the attacks. Chaosdramon turned his head to Machinedramon as the steel beast staggered backward.

The two, long barreled cannons on Chaosdramon's back rolled forward from their retracted positions, pointing to the ground behind the crimson dragon. The transparent casing around portions of the cannons glowed as the barrels charged. The cannons hummed a bulge of energy domed out of the barrels' mouths.

"Hyper Mugen Cannon!" Chaosdramon released the collected energy in two, red, cannonballs of high energy radiation.

The fairy and the cyborg swung out of the way of the cannonballs. The red spheres of death roasted the air as they continued forward. The only thing between the cannonballs and the tree was the clay digimon. The titan glided forward on its footless legs. The two crimson projectiles exploded into radiation shrapnel as streams of red light sliced threw the air in all directions. The sky even was tinged with red as the energy fled the scene of the explosion. The crimson glared cleared and the clay digimon was imbedded into the bark of the tree. Its eyes were pulsing red.

The clay creature raised the clay shudders on its eyes, "Justice Beam!"

Two crimson spotlights smashed into Chaosdramon. The red chrome digi-zoid armor hissed as the energy burned across its surface. The lights traveled down from the chest armor toward the exposed red flesh.

Machinedramon dropped onto his front legs and quickly injected his cannons with fuel.

"Giga Cannon!" a pair of yellow plasma bolts exploded forward. The pair of beams sliced into the sky as the bolts struck home. The clay creature was still living but it was now lying on the ground, glaring its energy beams into the sky, harmlessly.

"Horn Buster!" electrical bolts fired down on Machinedramon from above. Machinedramon instantly looked up to see that the scarab he'd toasted earlier was still insolent enough to re-engage.

"I will deal with this one," Chaosdramon said with a snort. He turned his head to Machinedramon, "You start cutting the tree down…"

Machinedramon nodded and glared at the tree. It was the reason they were here, to destroy it. They, however, had gotten sidetracked with the enjoyment in toying with the puny resistance put up by the digi-destined. The time for idle games was over.

Machinedramon dug into the ground. He primed his cannons. Two pulsed rifled forward from his back, quickly followed by two more and then another pair of bursts. The tree shuddered when the first two attacks exploded into its trunk. The loud creaking ran up and down the mountainous conifer and pine needles the size of telephone poles fell to the ground, lifting dust into the air. The dust was quickly swept away by the second explosion. The tree leaned heavily back. The third attack sent house-sized hunks of bark flying in all direction. The wood crackled as fibers snapped.

The smoke cleared revealing a giant bite taken out of the tree's trunk. Frayed shards of tree poked forward against the lean of the tree, as if straining to hold the tree together.

Machinedramon lifted his left hand and closed his heavy metallic claws. They spun into a fury. He had to get the roots.

Out of the side of his eye he saw the scarab that Chaosdramon had promised to be rid of jet away with a streak of lavender energy chasing after it. Machinedramon turned to look at the crimson dragon. Chaosdramon lifted his augmented claws up and together Machinedramon and Chaosdramon drove their claws into the earth.

"DRAGON FIRE!"

"CHAOS CRUSHER!"

The ground vomited forward as a gash split the earth releasing flaming spires of lavender energy as it wormed towards the tree. The clay beast that was lying on the ground raised itself upright in a single motion. It fired a pair of thin lasers at the gash, ineffectively, and then was tossed aside by the spires being emitted from the fault line. The tree shook as the gash tried to split the tree horizontally.

"One more blast should finish the tree," Chaosdramon stated as he pointed his vertebral cannons at the tree.

Machinedramon followed Chaosdramon's motion.

"Hyper Mugen Cannon!"

"Giga Cannon!"

The volleys fired forward, arching through the sky towards the tree trunk.

"Metal Wolf Claw!" Missiles exploded into Chaosdramon covering the red armored dragon with bluish ice.

Machinedramon whipped his head up in the direction that the missiles came from. A mechanical, blue wolf in gold chest armor rocketed towards them. Machinedramon targeted his cannons at the mechanical lupine creature.

"Dramon Destroyer!" Machinedramon twisted around hearing a voice from behind.

He saw a raised, golden gauntlet and orange tinted claws charging towards him. Machinedramon lurched backward as the claws sliced past his face, missing by the smallest of margins. A golden dragon warrior twisted around and glared at him. His orange flesh bulged from the yellow armor and gray breastplate. Its horned head was inclined, looking down at him. The wolf hovered next to the dragon warrior.

Behind the two newcomers, the dramons' attacks exploded into the tree. The tree screeched as its wood was plied apart by the force. Chaosdramon exploded from his frozen cage and tossed his head forward, pointing his cannons at the two digimon hovering in front of him.

"Hyper Mugen Cannon!" Chaosdramon roared in fury as his cannons released energy bursts, one after another.

The wolf and the dragon man scattered, the wolf going right and the dragon warrior going left. The wolf rocketed forward. Gun ports opened on all of its forward sections and releasing thousands of missiles into Chaosdramon.

"Terra Force!" The dragon man arched his back as he heaved a monstrous ball of energy over his head. The ball flew forward and Machinedramon groaned as it bowled into his chest.

"Metal Wolf Snout!" A wave of arctic ice washed over Chaosdramon.

The red dragon was frozen in place. The wolf drove forward slamming its clawed feet through the frozen Dramon. Chaosdramon shattered into a thousand ice shards that clattered onto the rocky ground. Machinedramon looked forward. Chaosdramon's rage filled, red, cannonballs exploded into the tree, each one smashing through the wooden monolith of the tree trunk, cracking its infrastructure.

The dragon man and the wolf dove towards Machinedramon. He dropped to all fours and primed his cannons one last time.

"Giga Cannon!" roared Machinedramon as his cannons fired twice before the wolf's icy breath smothered him.

The dragon man's claws sliced through him and Machinedramon felt himself dying but not before his attacks hit home. The tree creaked loudly and then howled as it toppled backward. Machinedramon sighed in relief as he exploded into dust.

888

Daisuke held Veemon as he sat on MegaKabuterimon's back. The other children held their digimon too. Hikari gently caressed Salamon's burnt frame. Takeru rubbed Patamon's stomach. Iori held onto Armadillomon who sported scorch marks on his shell. Biyomon had singed feathers and Sora had put band-aids on some of the pink bird's scrapes. Mimi and Miyako both sat, gently holding both Palmon and Hawkmon, who remained mostly uninjured.

Metal Garurumon and WarGreymon were flying behind MegaKabuterimon. Yamato was sitting next to Sora, wrapped in about twelve feet of muffler and sporting a huge, blue puffy jacket. Tai was sitting between Takeru and Hikari, wearing his normal blue jacket that hung well below his waist down to his knees.

In the distance, a black vortex was swallowing the remains of the destroyed Destiny Tree. Yamato and Taichi had appeared at the same time. Taichi and his parents had just gotten home and Yamato had been trying to get up, but his medicine had made him sluggish so it had delayed him. The vortex finally slowly faded behind them as the remnants of the Digital World's defenses repaired the inter-dimensional rift created by the tree's destruction.

Daisuke clenched his fist and shook angrily. Another defeat, another loss, another failure, that's how it had ended. The dragons won again. Even though it was a pricy victory the dragons would accept it. What are a few casualties when the dragons can just replace the lost; it made no difference to them. Daisuke glared down at the burnt face of Veemon. He didn't know how to fight them, and he didn't like the feeling of hopeless that was building in his chest. He looked at the others. They for the most part looked like they had come out of pictures of refugees from an air raid, like the pictures he'd seen on the news, all huddled, sad and defeated. Daisuke wondered if he looked like that.

Daisuke wondered about a lot of things, as he watched the storm created by the rift rage even though the rift was gone, and most of his wonderings weren't good.

888

Computer screens glared in the darkened room. The rapid clicking and clacketing of mice and keyboards was overplayed on the near silent hum of the electronics.

"Report?" said a man as he walked out of the darkness of the room into the light of the computer screens. He was blonde with a pair of black sunglasses covering his eyes.

"Network disturbance at level 9.86…" shouted a man in a white shirt sitting in front of a man with an amplitude monitor on the screen of his computer. "Verging on 9.87…reaching levels that had been recorded a year earlier before the Great Blackout…"

"And the Christmas Incident…" said the man with the sunglasses. "Hard copy the scans now!"

"There has been a shift in internet connectivity, but it's stabilizing," replied a young woman with curly brown hair.

"The Barrier is reestablishing its cohesion but I can get an inward scan across the remaining tear," shouted a black haired woman.

"Do it, let's see what the heck is going on in there," said the man with the sunglasses. A giant multi-paneled flickered to life. Streaks of lavender lightning sliced across the panels' surfaces. Black wind swirled around a peaceful epicenter. "There, section 4 mark 4…" The man pointed at the middle of the screen. The picture zoomed in and a filter washed over the blurred image.

"It's a tree, sir," replied the black haired woman.

"A big tree…right in the middle of a giant rift," The man frowned. "Harrison, print off the image. I'm calling Pentagon."

"Yes, sir, Mr. Johnson, sir!" said the brown haired woman as she went to work.

The man walked out of the room into a diluted, white lit hallway and walked down the hall. He passed three doorways and stopped and looked at the plate on the door.

'Gary Johnson: Director of H.Y.P.N.O.S'

Gary smiled as he gripped the door and opened it. After the Christmas Incident and subsequent incursions from across the 'breach', the United States decided to create the High Yield Pan-Network Observation System to monitor and maintain the security of the United States and her allies. The human race had also learned their lesson from last time. All scans, readings and knowledge about the world beyond the 'breach' was filed on hard copies and placed outside the domain of digital access.

Mr. Johnson lifted the phone off the receiver. He pressed the red extension number. The tones played as the phone dialed itself. The telephone purred a ring into Johnson's ear.

"Hello, this is Director Johnson of H.Y.P.N.O.S," Johnson said congenially into the phone. A secretary was on the other end. Johnson frowned as he listened to her prattle on to him about an important UN phone call. He groaned and finally spoke up, "Fine, Fine, tell General McIntyre that Project Devolution should be implemented, that H.Y.P.N.O.S has reason to believe that a situation is presenting itself…" Johnson stopped talking as a click came into his ear.

"Johnson that you?" a gruff voice snorted into the receiver.

"General McIntyre!" Johnson yelped in surprise.

"I was just on the phone with that Udabi man at the Digital Access and Transmission Sentinel," McIntyre's voice sounded bored and slightly grumpy. "He says that DATS has some kind of rift thing…going on."

"I was just telling your secretary…she said you were in an important conference call," Johnson replied hurriedly.

"Nah, just with that buffoon at the UN's DATS program…" grunted the general.

"Well, then that confirms our findings," Johnson said scratching his chin, "We detected a similar rift event here. I was just telling your secretary that Project Devolution should start being implemented. With the size and endurance of the rift we just detected, and it's similarities with the rifts detected last year, it is my belief that an incursion from beyond the breach is soon to happen."

"I will make the appropriate overtures to the Secretary of Defense and the President…" McIntyre said with an annoyed sigh, "but it won't be easy to convince them to go into a massive refit phase in the middle of a war overseas…"

"If we aren't ready for the incursion, it won't matter what's going on overseas…" Johnson said sternly, "we'll have a war here, in our backyards!"


	12. A Shining Future

**A Shining Future**

**888**

"I am sorry to report that we lost another city in the Los Conchos valley…" a giant green dragon with large paw-shaped wings bowed its head down in front of the thrones in the great hall.

Upon the thrones were three dragon digimon, a gold wyvern, a pinkish Dachshund like dragon, and a bloody-red wyvern. The red wyvern rested in the middle of the other two in the largest throne. A large iron seat its long tail with its bladed ivory extensions twisted around the back of the throne. The golden dragon rested more conventionally with its tail curled under its torso and the tail's end overflowing the seat of the throne and dangling towards the floor. The pink dragon was curled on the seat of its throne its antelope-horned head laying on top of its clawed paws.

"Again in the Los Conchos valley." Growled the wyvern resting on the throne. Its large eyes burned down upon the green-four legged dragon. "Where is Breakdramon? Why am I hearing this from one of his Groundramon officers?"

"General Breakdramon was…" The green dragon hesitated slightly not willing to look the giant, red wyvern in the eye. "General Breakdramon…fell in combat…his entire battalion has retreated to the Crystal Mountains."

The wyvern's two hands slammed down on the iron armrests of the throne, the metal glowed bright red and the armrests warped slightly as heat poured off of the metal. A pair of nicotine-tinged wings flashed open as large acidic fangs emerged from a curling, red pair of scaly lips. The wyvern's large, red tail whipped around as the wyvern snarled in anger. The Groundramon shifted uncomfortably backwards as smoke furled out of the wyvern's nostrils and flowed upwards with an acrid odor.

"How could one of our elite generals be destroyed in the middle of nowhere!?" the wyvern growled, its eyes no longer on the Groundramon but on the two digimon on either its sides.

"It could be the humans…" Offered the pink dragoness. Her smooth voice flowed upwards to the wyvern. "They did finish off Machinedramon and Chaosdramon. They are actively protecting the trees as well…"

"No." The yellow wyvern said.

The two other throned dragons turned their heads to the golden wyvern.

"Why not?" asked the pink dragon hurtfully.

"The humans always retreat to their own world." The golden dragon said calmly, ignoring the other two's piercing glare. It steepled its fingers together in front of its chest, resting its yellow elbows on its armrests. "I have been monitoring the portal activity between the worlds, as well as I can, I have noted no activity across the dimensional breach. Whatever took Breakdramon down was from this world." The yellow wyvern finally turned its head to the other two. "It would seem we have a powerful resistance cell in the Los Conchos valley…"

"Who would dare resist our power, Goddramon?" the red wyvern growled softly to the golden dragon. The steam issued from its iron throne.

"Despite our godly mission there are many who resist us, Megidramon." Goddramon said to the red wyvern, almost remorsefully. The dragon then narrowed his eyes. "The Digi-destined being one such group."

"Yes and the humans have always been supported by 'them'." The pink dragon smirked looking up at the other two.

"You think the sprite is capable of this, Holydramon?" the red wyvern growled, flicking its cat's-eye gaze to the pink dachshund of a dragon.

"You think he isn't?" Holydramon chuffed as she sat up. "We know he was in close communication with Azullie prior to our release. They undoubtedly had countermeasures for our inevitable return to power, if only to frustrate us."

"Isn't there a Destiny Tree near Los Conchos?" Goddramon said to the Groundramon, almost absent-mindedly. The other two dragons turned almost having forgotten that the green Ultimate digimon was still in their presence.

"I…err…" Groundramon floundered after becoming the immediate interest of the three draconic Mega digimon. "I…yes…a giant cactus…the place used to be part of a giant server network…."

"Yes, I remember near the coast isn't it…?" Goddramon whispered mostly to himself.

"Do you plan to utilize your new soldiers for this task?" Megidramon asked staring down to Goddramon.

"Hmm, no, the Tankdramon have a more important task at hand, doing a new project I've been working on to assist in consolidating our hold on the world." Goddramon said unfurling his metallic silvery wings. "I have a much better plan."

888

"So as we can see, eukaryotic cells can be diagnosed by having organelles and a nucleus, where as prokaryotic cells lack a nucleus or major organelles…" The cinnamon haired teenager said as he pointed a laser pointer at the large screen unfurled on the wall of his bedroom. His eyes glanced over his audience. He sighed quietly to himself.

The blonde boy was flicking through his cell phone. The brunette boy was fidgeting in his seat scribbling in his notebook. The brunette girl was chewing on the end of her pencil, her eyebrows furrowed.

"So, I'm guessing we're done today." The cinnamon haired boy put the laser pointer down. The other two boys looked up at him, and the girl frowned slightly. "Guys, I realize that things are getting serious, so I've been thinking that maybe we should cut back on the study sessions."

"Wait, what?" the girl looked up in shock. "Izzy, we can't just…"

"Sora, it does us no good to pretend that this is something we can do along with the current crisis." Izzy said as he sat down in his desk chair and crossed his legs, putting his hands on his knees. "It's increasingly difficult for me to concentrate on my studies, and setting up the tutoring sessions and of course the ongoing conflict against the dragons."

"Izzy, bro, I'm sorry, we'll pay attention…" The blonde said.

"It's not that, Yamato." Izzy replied, his eyes flashing up to the older teenager. He reached lazily over to his computer and turned off the power-point and seamlessly clicked on his e-mail. "I received this email from Gennai not long ago. I had concerns about the destruction of that tree a couple of weeks ago. The barrier that separates the two worlds did fail during the tree's destruction, as I had feared."

"Wait, does that mean what I think it means?" the brunette boy asked.

"I'm afraid so, Taichi." Izzy said quietly. "Like with the Destiny Stones, the destruction of the trees will eventually cause the barrier between worlds to falter and fail, only this time, there's no Azulongmon to re-establish the barrier if all the trees go down. We need to do something. We need to stop this now or at least keep the dragons from continuing to hit the trees."

"How? We cannot be in the Digital World constantly." Yamato said as he leaned back in his chair.

"I don't know…" Izzy admitted quietly. He took a deep breath through his nose. "I spoke with Gennai over chat a little. I mentioned this issue with him; he only said he was dealing with it on his end."

"Before we were trapped there, now we are trapped here." Taichi said; the brunette boy frowned as he looked at the scribbles on the notebooks. "Ironic that the problem in this situation is that our lives are in the way. In so many ways it was easier against the Dark Masters because we had no choice but to face them."

"That is a succinct way of putting it." Izzy replied. He looked up. "There has been some activity near another tree in the eastern area of Server. An army of dragons have been acting in the area, they have been held off so far but…maybe we should act."

"When?" Sora asked.

"I don't know." Izzy said, shaking his head slightly. "The assault on the tree could come at any time, it's been suspiciously quiet the last couple of days according to Gennai."

"I'll talk to Hikari and the others." Taichi said as he gathered his books together. He looked up to Izzy. "Koushiro, thank you, for helping with this, I know we weren't as appreciative as we should've been."

Yamato and Sora looked up at Taichi. A little shock played across their face.

"Uh…thank you…" Izzy said standing up. He blushed slightly. "I wish we could've continued but…"

"We'll get back to it, right?" Taichi said, smiling and looking to the other two teens.

"Uh, yeah…totally…" Yamato said nodding, Sora bobbed her head in agreement.

"Right ,well, see you later, then." Taichi said, as he slung his book bag over his shoulder. "I'll send out an email when I've gotten everything together. See you guys later."

The others said goodbye and Taichi left. Yamato and Sora followed along soon after. Izzy sat back down on his chair as he turned and looked at his computer screen. It was going to be difficult, maybe impossible, but there had to be a solution to the problem.

888

They came in the week. The red and yellow moth-dragons were now an army. They had swarmed the besieged Koromon village. They had brought food, water and explained that the village was not under threat from the war looming near the Crystal Mountains.

"Shadramon! Shadramon!" one of the many pink balls with long krinkly ears bounced towards one of the yellow and red moth-dragons. "Thank you for bring these gifts to us!" It bounced around the moth-dragon's feet. "We truly appreciate them!"

The moth-dragon clawed gauntlets were held together in front of its chest. It looked down at the Koromon and smiled an insect-smile. "Do not thank me, young one. It was the beneficence of my lords and masters, the Great Dragons." The Shadramon tilted its head towards the Koromon, the flame decaled crests glinted in the sun. "Goddramon himself commanded we bring relief to you young Koromon. He was concerned. You are the shining future of this Digital World after all."

"Really?" the Koromon bounced, looking amazedly at the Shadramon.

"Goddramon does not speak lies." Said the moth-dragon as it continued walking. "The Great Dragons only wish to bring peace and order back to this world. It is unfortunate that others wish to deny them their wishes. All this war is not the work of our gods. They only seek peace. It is those who wish to resist that seek destruction and ruin. Those who would proclaim some kind of destiny over the world itself that wishes to corrupt it away from the ancient order of those days past. Our gods would love to see all living digimon united and together in peace. It truly surprises them the resistance that they receive." The Shadramon stopped and looked down to the Koromon. "If you wish to see the peace of this world brought into fruition, I would suggest serving our gods, and spreading the words, proclaiming the truth to others. Convince them of their futile blasphemies and bring them away from their sins and disbelief. Those who have faith in the Great Dragons…."

"Find themselves conquered and warped by them." Boomed a voice from atop one of the small houses that comprised the Koromon village. The owner's body was muscle-bound; a flowing mane framed its feline face. A pair of torn black pants was worn tightly on its bulging legs. "These priests see to bribe you with food and toys and false promises of hope! The dragons seek to purge the world, create it only for the dramon. Any hopes for choice and freedom burned from this world. The only justice being that of the flame and the claw." The lion-man pointed a finger at the Shadramon. "You should be ashamed of yourself! Lying to these poor defenseless digimon!"

"Dear sir, I can assure you that no lie has been told." The moth-dragon responded quietly, calmly. It didn't even move its head to look up at its accuser. "You are that Leomon, aren't you? The one that's been held up at Los Conchos?" The Shadramon finally looked up at the lion-man. "You are the one that demands this war, dear sir. You and your human allies. You fight and hide and the innocent caught in the crossfire are the victims. How many have fallen in the valley? Dramon and non-dramon have fallen in the fighting between our gods and your resistance, and to what end, dear sir? To what end? Eventually our gods will win. It is only a matter of time. Even you must see it.

"You who think they can rebel against the will of gods, who are you to have such belief? I have seen my gods, I know them, I do their works and profess their truths. Tell me, dear sir, to whom do you pray? What great truths do you know? Surely you do not worship the humans?"

"You only profess half the truth. What of the slaughter of Loto Dell'Ombra? The massacre of File Island? The purging of Folder?" The lion man growled. "What of those who will not submit to you, or your gods?"

"Order must be maintained." The Shadramon said quietly. The moth-dragon looked down to the Koromon beside it. "Young one, do you remember Etemon? Do you remember the Dark Masters?"

The Koromon nodded sharply.

"My dear sir," the Shadramon turned and looked back up to the lion-man. "What was done to Etemon and the Dark Masters, to Myotismon, to Devimon?"

"Those were different!" the lion-man shouted, his fists clenched to his sides. "They were destroying digimon to take over the whole of the world!"

"It was the inevitable result of the chaos sown by the fall of our gods." The Shadramon said. "Our gods would never have allowed such a thing to occur. We would have seen fit that only certain digimon were allowed that kind of power, to ensure the just usage of said power for the protection of others." Others were starting to gather, a group of Koromon was gathering in the streets around the Shadramon. Other Shadramon were moving towards the area, fluttering forward on their flame-colored moth wings. The original Shadramon turned to the other Koromon that were gathering and spread its gauntleted arms out. "My dear children, this dear sir would see your village plunged into chaos! He would rather wait for another round of Etemon, or Dark Masters or even the return of something worse; just to satisfy some nebulous ideal! The Great Dragons provide you opportunities of safety and comfort, they only ask for your love and faith in them and their policies. No tithes, no taxes, no garnishment of wages. Just faith and fidelity, such pithy small things for the safety and security of one's life." The Shadramon turned its back to the lion-man completely and spoke directly to the crowd. "Do you remember not that long ago, further up this coast, another Koromon village not unlike this one was destroyed, in one of the pithy skirmishes between the 'digi-destined'," the moth-dragon spoke the term as if it were poison, "and the supposed evil doers of the time!?" The Shadramon pointed up to the lion-man. "Our dear sir would have us forget that his human allies contributed to a mass execution of your poor sweet brethren, not only a few miles up the coast!"

"How dare you turn that tragedy…" the lion-man growled loudly, his fists tightening.

"My dear sir, the consequences of your allies actions are a perfectly good target for this kind of discourse." The Shadramon said, turning its head towards the lion-man. "I am only illuminating the…"

The moth-dragon didn't get to finish its sentence as the lion-man's fist smashed into the side of its helmeted head. There was a scream as the Koromon flushed in all directions. The Shadramon on the street skidded as it skittered from the blow. The other Shadramon were now diving in closer. Hundreds of them piled towards the lion-man.

There was a feral roar, and a blinding light. The attacking Shadramon spiraled upward into the air. In the street a large orange and red saber-toothed lion snarled as it stared down the Shadramon that encircled it. He was prepared to fight if necessary. He snarled loudly at the encircling Shadramon. The dragons stayed back.

"See, my poor children, see the savagery of our dear sir." The original Shadramon said, as it walked forward. "See the chaos our dear sir has unleashed in this town just from his presence? We wished him no harm here; we were only having a conversation. It was he that turned this into a battleground."

"I wish you no harm." The saber-toothed lion said looking to the Koromon which were huddled and shaking in the shadows and from behind doors.

"I beg to differ." The Shadramon said, rubbing its cheek. "I've found few peacemakers who make their harmless presence known by a punch to the face."

"Please…" One of the Koromon, possibly braver than the rest, started. It hopped out into the open and looked to the lion. "Please…just go…we don't want any trouble here. No battles here, just go, SaberLeomon."

"But…" SaberLeomon looked at the little Koromon.

"Go!" The Koromon shouted, and soon was joined by others.

"You are being tricked!" the lion returned.

"GO!" the Koromon shouted in unison, and before he knew it he was being assaulted by tiny soap bubbles that popped across his face.

"It looks as if the Koromon have made a decision, my dear sir." The Shadramon said walking up behind the Koromon. "Will you respect their freedom of choice?"

SaberLeomon growled angrily and snorted before leaping over the houses of the village and retreating into the forest.

"Shadramon…" The Koromon that first spoke with the Shadramon looked up. "How could I help protect this village better? Is there something I could do for the Great Dragons?"

"Oh, yes, young one. Our gods are always yearning for new believers." The Shadramon said congenially, clasping its gauntleted claws together and smiling an insect smile to itself.

888

"I told you to stay away." The man in beige robes said. He was turned away from the three digimon that were sitting in the cave. "Now we have lost them to the dragons undoubtedly." He spun around to the lion digimon. "Your stunt did more to undermine our advance than any further assault from the Great Dragons would!"

"I could not simply stand by as the dragons lied to those Koromon!" The lion digimon growled, looking down at the ground dejectedly.

"Leomon, the dragons can give those Koromon something we cannot, security." The man paced in front of the digimon. "That will trump any idealism we may have to offer. It is a situation that we must endure. The dragons will have better PR than we will, the only way we can defeat them on that front is to allow them to poison their own wells. Allow the likes of the Koromon and others to see the ramifications that joining the dragons will have on their lives and their freedoms." He turned to Leomon and pointed. "You cannot force such a thing to happen, you'll only play into the dragons' hands that way!"

"Well, we can't let the dragons simply walk over us either!" the digimon sitting next to Leomon growled. It was a hulking green figure with silver hair and large bony spike protruding from its head. "You know that defeat we dealt them is only temporary, it won't be long before they send another Mega digimon to tear down that cactus."

"We have Leomon, yep-yep." The third digimon pipped. It was a pink sphere with long, thin feathery wings.

"Yeah, yeah, Leomon…" the green digimon grumbled. "One day he won't be enough, though! Gennai, I thought we all were supposed to be getting the same kind of power…"

"Ogremon, I'm doing what I can." Gennai waved his hand dismissively. "Keep training with Piximon, you'll get there."

"This old fart can't train me fast enough! The dragons are coming! Why aren't the digi-destined here! The brats could help us!" The ogre growled standing up. "And since this old dust ball is busy teaching me how to mop…I'm next to usele-" Ogremon didn't finish his sentence as his face was planted into the ground.

"You still need to learn to dodge, yep-yep." The pink digimon said sharply as it hovered over Ogremon, spinning his staff in his pudgy hands.

"Both of you…" Gennai tsked. "Shut up. Just shut up."

"Ogremon is not wrong." Leomon said stoically, looking up. "We barely stopped Breakdramon. We only forced the dramon into the mountains. "Undoubtedly they will be back. Our Goblimon and Gizamon scouts are constantly encountering small pockets of dragon patrols at the foothills, each day they seem to come closer. It may not be unwise to call the digi-destined for assistance."

Gennai clutched the lapels of his robes, and looked sternly at the ground. "At some point we must stand up to these situations on our own. The humans are not always going to bail us out."

"But now is not the time, we need the chosen ones." Leomon said gently. "If we don't the affects of the…"

"Do not attempt to lecture me on the repercussions…" Gennai growled, looking sidelong at Leomon. "I invented the repercussions…"

"What do you want us to do then!?" Leomon growled, pressing his hands on the ground. "We stay here pinned down? How long do we wait as we shed mon and lose villages to the dragons' lies? We are losing this war!"

"I KNOW!" Gennai shouted, his face turned to Leomon, his eyes sharply glaring at the lion. "I know better than any of you just what has been lost! I was the intermediary of the Harmonious Ones. I've lost my greatest friends." Gennai turned sharply from the digimon. "I will look for reinforcements and I will appraise the situation. As to the chosen ones; I will make a decision soon." He flipped the hood of his robes over his head. "I will return." He turned his head back to Leomon. "Until then…do not act, stay low, defend the destiny tree, and that is all. Don't confront the dragons, don't go into any unaligned villages, and do not debate with the Shadramon. Got it?"

Leomon growled and nodded curtly.

"Good." Gennai said as he left the cave. "I should be back in a couple of days."

"Leomon, you know he means the best…" Piximon said quietly. "We shall go back to my sanctuary, we will train more. We will listen to the reports and make best our defense."

"We should contact the children." Leomon said, gruffly. "They should be appraised of the situation."

"Gennai will…"

"Will he?" the lion-man asked, looking up at the pink pixie. "I doubt it."

"Either way, help me get this one up." Piximon said pointing to Ogremon with his staff. "He is strong but stubborn…that in and of itself holds him back, yep-yep."

888

"Lord Goddramon." A red armored moth-dragon knelt before the golden dragon god. "I bring you the adherents from the Koromon village…"

Three pink dumplings with long crinkled ears hopped out from behind the moth-dragon. Goddramon's eyes scanned over the three little digimon and then flicked over to the moth-dragon.

"Thank you, Shadramon, I will hold council with these small ones." The dragon said his voice rich and deep and full of fatherly care. The Shadramon nodded and slowly backed away and then left the large throne room. The three Koromon fidgeted in the presence of the dragon god. Goddramon steepled his hand, resting them on his chest. "I have been getting reports from my dear Shadramon priests. I apologize that these horrible times have afflicted your village such. It is not my will that this strife should befall such innocents as yourselves. However, the rebellion and vigilantism of a few, misguided digimon can make such horror for so many. I hope that my Shadramon have provided some relief."

The middle Koromon, who was slightly larger than the other two, hopped forward, gulping slightly. "Yes, the food and the water have been most helpful and the Shadramon have been nothing but kind to us." The larger Koromon looked back to the other two with him. "We wish to show our appreciation to the Great Dragon who has made this possible…"

"Such courteousness is refreshing." Goddramon said a small smile playing across his bearded face. "It is unfortunately rare in these days."

"We have no way of repaying your graciousness." The Koromon continued, slowly. "Our village is not large; we really can only take care of ourselves. We're small and quite humble in our capacities..."

"Repayment?" Goddramon tilted his head slightly to one side. "Dear child, do not fear that. I need no tithe, no tax, no coercion to protect the small. I am a god, you are innocents in a conflict. I only wish to see you protected, as any deity would."

"We wish to repay you though…" The lead Koromon said. "It is part of our code. We wish to help you bring about this world of peace that the Shadramon speak of. We wish to serve you, so that our village may be saved in perpetuity…"

"Ah…" Goddramon said quietly to himself. He looked down at the three Koromon. "I request no service from you though. I desire nothing from you. I wish only to give you protection."

"Please, Lord Goddramon." The right-most Koromon bounced forward. "Please, allow us to do something for you! We will do whatever it takes to alleviate this debt we owe to you!"

"I see…" Goddramon said quietly. He turned his head back to a map on the far wall of the throne room. "You come from the Continent of Server, from the coast, yes?"

"Yes!" The three Koromon chirped together.

"Near the Los Conchos valley…" Goddramon continued quietly.

"That's correct!" the three Koromon said together.

"Hmm, but I couldn't possibly ask for such a thing…" Goddramon said placing a clawed digit to his bearded mouth, "it would be far too much to ask…"

"Nothing is too much! You have saved our village from undoubted destruction!" the largest Koromon shouted.

Goddramon cast his eyes back down to the three small dumplings. "I do need new generals. Undoubtedly you are aware of the situation in the Los Conchos valley? Of the insurrectionists who have embedded themselves there?"

"Yes, our village is near that front line." The largest Koromon said, looking away. "The initial battles in the valley nearly crushed our village."

"Even recently one of the rebel commanders made an appearance in our village, and confronted one of your priests!" the left-most Koromon said.

"I am so sorry." Goddramon said with a syrupy tone. "All this conflict and war is horrible. Unfortunately the only way to end it is to attack with overwhelming force." Goddramon lowered his head down and came to the Koromon's level. "You know the area quite well, I'm sure. I need generals who know the area. I need warriors who are true to the cause, to root out the rebels from the valley."

The three Koromon gulped and looked to one another. The largest Koromon then looked to Goddramon. "But we're…so…small…"

Goddramon rose up again towering above the Koromon. "Do you not remember with whom you speak!? I am a god!" Goddramon lifted his right arm. It glowed with a bright blue light. "I can provide you with all the tools and abilities you require to serve me." He looked down to the Koromon. "That is, if you wish to serve me in this manner."

The three Koromon looked at each other. They fidgeted slightly and the largest then looked up to Goddramon. "Koromon always repay their debts…"

Goddramon nodded slowly and smiled a small internal smile.

888

Tseep Tseep Tseep…

Daisuke groaned slightly as his hand blindly bounced across his night table. The incessant beeping flared into his ears. He weakly drew one eye open, and found nothing but darkness.

TSEEP TSEEP TSEEP

His fingers caught the edge of a small object and instantly snagged it up and flicked it up to him. He flipped the phone open and put it to his ear.

"Yeah…" Daisuke mumbled, his one eye still just barely open, the other still closed.

"Is that really how you answer the phone!?" snorted the voice on the other end.

Daisuke's open eye swept over to a small digital clock on his night stand.

"It's three thirty in the morning, Miyako…" Daisuke replied with a grunt. "You're lucky I answered at all."

"Get dressed, and get ready to digi-port, Koushiro just called me and said something's going down in the Digital World; a friend of the older kids evidently sent an SOS." Miyako's voice said, with less sharpness.

"Now?" Daisuke said incredulously.

"Yes, now!" Miyako replied. Daisuke winced. Miyako continued. "They're attacking a destiny tree. Hikari and Taichi are already getting ready to leave, Koushiro is trying to get a hold of the older children. Do you have your digi-port program up?"

"Yeah, yeah, give me a few minutes, where is it?" Daisuke said as he sat up in his bed.

"I don't know; where'd you put it on your computer?" Miyako's voice snapped sarcastically.

"Not the program, numbskull." Daisuke said as he swept his legs around off his bed and onto the floor. He braced the phone against his ear as he danced around getting dressed. "Where in the Digital World?"

"Oh…Continent of Server, grid location 003 by 1100…Valley of the Pyramids…" Miyako said, from the sound of her voice she was clearly reading the information off. "Can you call, Ken?"

"Why can't you?" Daisuke hissed as he stubbed his toe on his desk chair.

"You don't have a house filled with siblings trying to sleep!" Miyako hissed back.

"Yeah, fine, I'll call. See you when I get there." Daisuke snipped, as he sat in his desk chair and started to put on socks. He closed the phone and pocketed it with one hand and reached back and clicked his desk lamp on with the other. There was a tiny groan from his bed as a small blue form twisted in the covers. Daisuke hung the phone up and laced his shoes up. He stood up and slowly walked over to his little partner. "DemiVeemon, get up, we've got work to do…"

"Just ten more minutes…" whined the little, blue plushie.

"Sorry, bud, no can do…" Daisuke said gently stroking the little dragonet. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "Don't worry, you're not the only that won't like this…"

888

SaberLeomon smashed hard against the face of an upside-down pyramid. The gray WarGreymon in front of him snickered as it lifted its bladed gauntlets up. The saber-toothed lion snarled and pushed against the gravity defying pyramid and leapt out of the way as the clawed gauntlets sliced through the sandstone.

The red and yellow feline twisted in the air and dropped to the ground below. Its blue eyes glared around him. The battle was going badly. The dragons had attacked from an unseen cave that had run through the Crystal Mountains deep into the territory that the rebels had been holding, and had attacked the Monochromon and Triceramon forces from behind their lines. Then the Wingdramon and Airdramon airstrikes had started. The rebel forces had been pushed into consistent retreat now for hours, as the fight had become a running battle of retreat by the rebels, inwards towards the destiny tree.

He had ordered Ogremon to contact the Digi-destined. He wasn't sure how long they could hold the area. Once his rebels had reached the Valley of the Pyramids he knew that he could retreat no more. The giant saguaro that represented the destiny tree in this region loomed over the sphinx at the heart of the valley, its large fleshy arms reaching upwards towards the sky. He had warp digivolved to SaberLeomon, in hopes of stopping the dragon's advance. However almost instantly he found that even this was not enough.

His eyes turned back to the gray WarGreymon. It was hovering in the air, next to two other digimon. One was a golden WarGreymon carrying a huge sword; the other was a digimon that looked like a Greymon species that sported a red and white armor over its body and splayed and spoked armored wings that with rockets. Its tail swept around with a large, spiked circular emblem at its end.

"Surrender, SaberLeomon!" shouted the red and white Greymon. "Hand over the digital sprite. Have your soldiers stand down! By order of the Great Dragons!"

"You know I cannot and will not do that!" SaberLeomon roared, bracing itself. "Gennai is not here, anyways! You have missed him, and I will not surrender the Destiny Tree to you!"

"VictoryGreymon, ChaosWarGreymon…" The red and white Greymon looked to the sword wielding WarGreymon and the gray WarGreymon. "If he will not surrender, then remove him from the field of battle, once the snake's head is cut, the body will die."

The two WarGreymon nodded. The golden one swept its sword back and dove, its movements flashing and glinting in the desert sun. The gray one disappeared in one could only be described as a chaotic static flicker, only to reappear at random intervals of flashes, its gauntlets flickering as it rushed forward. SaberLeomon snarled; he narrowed his eyes. He had to keep the fight going, but against three opponents it was nearly impossible. He narrowly dodged the sword of VictoryGreymon, but that was when ChaosWarGreymon flickered into existence on his right flank, his gauntlets audibly sharpening against the friction of the air.

"You done goofed…" ChaosWarGreymon said as he brought his claws down.

SaberLeomon winced, knowing what was going to come next. There was a loud reverberating clanking. SaberLeomon slowly opened his eyes, when what was going to come next, didn't come, and had been replaced by the sound of struggling gurning. ChaosWarGreymon's clawed gauntlets were meshed with the clawed gauntlets of _the_ WarGreymon.

"As always…" Grunted WarGreymon. "Just in the nick of time…"

"You came." SaberLeomon sighed in relief.

WarGreymon kicked his chaotic, black counterpart in the midriff propelling the dragon general way, and turned to SaberLeomon. "Yes, sacrificing yourself for us once was enough, SaberLeomon."

SaberLeomon turned to see VictoryGreymon retreating under a hail of icy missiles as Metal Garurumon strafed the bladed digimon. Behind Metal Garurumon Paildramon was keeping the heat on with plasma bullets as VictoryGreymon tried to deflect the attack with his sword.

"I was not expecting three…" SaberLeomon confided as he looked back to WarGreymon. "I apologize for calling you at such an inconvenience."

"Is that one the head honcho?" WarGreymon asked, pointing to the red and white Greymon and ignoring SaberLeomon's apology.

"Yes, I believe he calls himself ShineGreymon." SaberLeomon snorted as he glared up at the digimon. "Any relation to you?"

"I am a dragon-man under all this armor…" WarGreymon admitted. "Still, I'd have liked to think us Greymon wouldn't be a part of this…"

"He's a big one." SaberLeomon said as he watched WarGreymon lift his gauntlets.

"I've faced bigger…" WarGreymon said as he launched towards the red and white ShineGreymon. A gray streak erupted from the desert though and intercepted WarGreymon and the two tussled off into the distance.

SaberLeomon stared at ShineGreymon. The red and white digimon sneered at the saber-toothed lion and then dove forward, pitching its metallic wings backwards and firing its booster rockets. SaberLeomon roared and galloped forward. The twos' collision created a pulse that washed over the valley. SaberLeomon lifted slightly as ShineGreymon grabbed his torso. The red and white Greymon's rockets flared as he lifted SaberLeomon into the air. SaberLeomon slashed against ShineGreymon's red chest armor with his claws, creating sparks as his claws grated across the metal.

"How could you do this!?" Growled SaberLeomon as his claws clung to ShineGreymon. "Betray your village!? Betray your world? You are that Koromon aren't you?"

"Betray!?" ShineGreymon snarled. "I am protecting my village! It is you who threaten it! You who brought your war here! When you and your rebellion are crushed, when the Digi-destined are brought to heel, the world will be peaceful once again!"

"You can't possibly believe that!" SaberLeomon returned, trying to achieve some purchase on ShineGreymon with his hind legs. "The Great Dragons will crush this world, convert your fellow Koromon as they have converted you and leave them mindless slaves to the dragons! Just as they have to you!"

ShineGreymon released one of its arms and clenched a fist and smacked SaberLeomon. "I am not mindless! You came to our village and brought conflict and strife!" ShineGreymon grabbed SaberLeomon's mane and pulled the lion's head up to look him in the eyes. "I will bring peace and harmony! I will purge you from our home, vile, infidel rebel!" ShineGreymon's wings flared, SaberLeomon saw the blue jewels embedded in the wings. "SHINING BURST!"

The jewels glowed red and then lasers fired down smashing into SaberLeomon as ShineGreymon kicked away. SaberLeomon roared in pain as the laser drilled him into the desert below.

888

"Flower Cannon!" Coredramon dropped back as green pulses fired from the flower-fairy's weapon.

"Static Force!" Silphymon stood staunchly as he thrust his cupped hands forward releasing red, spiraling bursts of energy outwards, towards the various dragon digimon rushing the sphinx.

"We're getting overrun!" Ogremon growled as he smashed a large bony cudgel on the head of a Strikedramon. "Retreat to the sphinx!" He punched forward releasing a pulse of malevolent purple energy into the mass of dragon soldiers clamoring towards them. "Regroup, you Shamamon and Goblimon, with me! You Minotarumon hold the line! You don't let those dragons in any further! If I see a dragon anywhere near that sphinx I'm going to tan your hides so hard I'll be able to start a jacket store!"

The smaller, softer Rookie digimon ran behind him as he covered their retreat. The destined digimon, Lillymon and Silphymon kept their attacks firing as Ogremon slowly backed towards the sphinx they were regrouping towards. The other digi-destined digimon were further back assisting WarGreymon and Metal Garurumon fight off the dragons' Mega generals. Ogremon growled at the thought of that. Leomon was fighting the important fight while he was forced to escort their collapsing defensive line back to a point that they would undoubtedly have to abandon sooner than later anyways. If only he was more powerful, he could assist in the real fight, rather than staying snarled in this quagmire of a running retreat.

He followed behind the Goblimon as they scrambled up into the sphinx. Within the chamber were twelve human children. Ogremon grumbled as he looked at them huddled close around the whizz kid with the laptop.

"We aren't going to be able to hold much longer." Ogremon growled at the kids. "WarGreymon and Metal Garurumon will have to hurry up or there won't be anyone left."

"We're doing our best, but there's little we can do with such overwhelming numbers." The whizz kid said, looking up from his computer screen. "You should've called sooner, we could've helped more earlier."

"I was under orders not to!" Ogremon returned he turned his head towards the opening of the sphinx where the sounds of battle thundered. "Gennai wanted us to hold out for as long as possible."

"Where is Gennai anyways?" A young girl with glasses asked, lifting her head to Ogremon. She was one of the new ones; Ogremon wasn't sure of her name.

"Went to find some reinforcements, but that was days ago." Ogremon replied. "He's probably deserted us. Left us to the wolves."

"Gennai wouldn't do that!" the whizz kid snapped, looking up. "He isn't like that!"

"He's never around when you need him and he's been supposed to have given me more power for weeks, now, so I can actually help in these situations!" Ogremon clenched his fist around his bone cudgel. "I'm useless as I am!"

"Don't say that!" Mimi shouted. Ogremon looked up as the thin girl with the reddish brown hair stood up and walked over to him. "You helped us immensely when we were fighting Piedmon! You were ready to fight against Metal Etemon!"

"I was young and stupid…" Ogremon growled, looking down at the girl. "Both of those times I had back-up." He looked back towards the desert outside. "Both times I wasn't in charge of an army…How can I lead if I cannot fight?" He looked back to Mimi. "How can I rival SaberLeomon?"

"This again?" a tall young man said, adjusting his glasses. "I thought this whole Leomon rivalry thing was over…"

"My rivalry with Leomon is…." Ogremon didn't get to finish the sentence as the whole of the sphinx shook, and debris and dust rained down.

"That one was close!" the smallest child, a boy, said. It was another of the newer kids that Ogremon didn't know.

"I'm afraid the battle between the Mega digimon is wandering closer to us." The whizz kid said as he turned his attention back to his laptop. "The front line is getting closer. Ogremon's right; we can't stay here much longer unless something major changes…."

888

ChaosWarGreymon's claws smashed in a rapid-fire succession into WarGreymon's Brave Shield, drilling WarGreymon down to the ground. The gray replica of WarGreymon was surprisingly fast, and WarGreymon was having a hard time finding a moment to counterstrike. ChaosWarGreymon was snarling and growling on the other side of the shield like some feral beast.  
"Come out from behind your shield! Face Me!" roared the chaotic digimon as he slammed fist after fist into the shields.

WarGreymon crouched down as ChaosWarGreymon pummeled down upon him. WarGreymon could feel the ground shifting out from underneath him with each blow. He knew he couldn't keep on the defensive much longer, either his shield would smash or the growing crater around him would cave into itself.

"If you won't face me then you will burn." ChaosWarGreymon growled. WarGreymon heard the sizzling sound and he blanched internally as he heard the roar. "Terra FORCE!"

A shadow swept in front of WarGreymon, and the Mega Digimon peered over his shields to see a large clay titan barricade itself in front of the spherical inferno raging towards him.

"Shakkoumon!" WarGreymon shouted as he stood up.

"I've got this!" The clay digimon said as the flaming sphere was swallowed up by the titan. The large clay head swiveled to look at WarGreymon. "Black WarGreymon's was much spicier!"

"Celestial Arrow!" bolts of white light struck ChaosWarGreymon as a female angel sliced through the air.

"Kachina Bombs!" the clay digimon turned and fired hundreds of bladed clay pigeons at ChaosWarGreymon.

The gray armored dragon man growled as he retreated from the unexpected onslaught. WarGreymon swept his shields around and hooked them to his shoulders and then propelled himself upwards, his gauntlets raised. It was time to go back on the offensive.

888

ShineGreymon's knee smashed against SaberLeomon's chin and the large cat tumbled backwards crashing to the ground on its back. ShineGreymon's tail sliced upwards and the large bladed emblem on its tip shone in the desert sun. The emblem sliced down as SaberLeomon rolled on the sands. The blade cut into the sand.

"Twin Fang!" roared SaberLeomon as his mane stiffened and thousands of sharp guard hairs flew forward.

ShineGreymon splayed its wings and the jewels imbedded in them glowed and fired thin lasers that cut through the cloud of needles. ShineGreymon clenched his fists and then dove towards the saber-toothed lion.

"Vulcan's Hammer!"

ShineGreymon looked up and from his left a large war-hammer smashed into his shoulder. The hammer's flight curved as ShineGreymon lurched slightly to the right from the impact. The hammer flew back to the hand of a large chelonian walrus. Behind the walrus was a large red scarab that rocketed over the unicorn-like horn of the hammer-wielding digimon. The beetle's large horn sparked with energy.

"Horn Buster!"

The electrical surge smashed into ShineGreymon's head. ShineGreymon growled as his feet struck the ground and skidded in the desert sand.

"Are you ok, SaberLeomon?" the walrus grunted as it stood to the lion's side.

"Bruised but not badly hurt, thank you Zudomon. If you and MegaKabuterimon hadn't arrived I don't know if I'd have been able to escape that next strike." SaberLeomon replied getting to his feet.

"Garudamon and DinoBeemon are helping Piximon with air-support." The beetle said as it landed on the other side of SaberLeomon. "You looked like you could use some help."

ShineGreymon looked to his other generals. Chaos WarGreymon was dodging a rapid fire assault from the digi-destined's WarGreymon as well as intense strikes from a Shakkoumon and an Angewomon. VictoryGreymon was parrying attacks from a Paildramon and a MagnaAngemon, as well as attempting to hold off a Metal Garurumon. A snarl built up in ShineGreymon's throat and he turned to face his own adversaries.

"You think this changes a thing?" ShineGreymon growled as he glared down at SaberLeomon. "You can't change your destiny; you can't change the will of the gods!" He lifted his hands to the sky. The jewels in his wings flared and then the energy fired into the jewel that was on the front of his chest armor. A huge flaming sphere formed in front of him and ShineGreymon brought his arms down so his clawed hands were slightly behind the sphere, and then he pushed. "Glorious Burst!"

The blast erupted into the ground. The beetle rocketed over and grabbed the walrus lifting it into the air as explosion expanded outward towards them. ShineGreymon rocketed towards the beetle. He clenched his clawed fists preparing to punch through the two Ultimate digimon.

"Howling Crusher!" the flames of the explosion swept aside as SaberLeomon launched himself upwards, smashing his claws against ShineGreymon's chest.

The shift in weight and mass rocked the winged, dragon-man and he tipped, falling backwards towards the ground as SaberLeomon pressed down with all his weight. ShineGreymon threw punches as they fell, smashing his clawed fists into the side of SaberLeomon's head, but the saber-toothed lion would not fall from him.

The ground smashed into ShineGreymon's back and the dragon digimon roared as SaberLeomon pressed his weight into ShineGreymon's body. ShineGreymon rammed one of his knees into SaberLeomon's stomach. The large cat winced, arching its back. ShineGreymon then lifted his other leg and kicked the lion off of him.

SaberLeomon rolled across the ground as ShineGreymon got up. SaberLeomon was already crouched and pounced forward his claws glowing. ShineGreymon shifted his weight and smashed the side of the lion's head with his tail, and the lion skidded across the sand creating a massive wake of glassy sand where his claws sliced through the soil.

"Vulcan's Hammer!"

The shout came from behind ShineGreymon, and before the Mega digimon had time to turn a massive weight smashed down from above onto his back, bringing a concussive force to bear between his shoulder blades as energy sparked across his armor. ShineGreymon grabbed up over his head and snagged the furry, tusked head of the assaulting Zudomon and flipped the chelonian walrus over his head and into the growling face of SaberLeomon. Zudomon and SaberLeomon tumbled as they rolled with one another.

ShineGreymon heard the thrumming rockets rushing up behind him. He turned to see the giant stag beetle hurtling towards him. The large arching horn on its head sparked angrily as it opened is fanged maw. ShineGreymon grabbed the beetle by the horn and turned at his hip, tossing the beetle into Zudomon, who was trying to get up onto his feet. The two Ultimates crashed back to the ground as SaberLeomon raced forwards, claws brandished to start the next round.

888

"Sting Strike!" the pikes on the top of Paildramon's gauntlets extended and the dragon slashed them down towards the smaller VictoryGreymon. The Mega digimon met the pikes with his giant sword, and skidded against the weight of the larger dragon digimon.

"Excalibur!" A lavender blade sliced downwards and VictoryGreymon barely pushed away as the blade sliced by. Its owner was a lavender armored angel digimon.

VictoryGreymon snarled softly to himself, being shown up by two Ultimate digimon was an embarrassment. However, the dragon-man digimon had a bigger problem.

"Metal Wolf Claw!" the metallic, lupine, Mega digimon rocketed forward, missiles and beams of pure cold whistling ahead of it.

VictoryGreymon retreated slightly and then stabbed his sword into the ground and hunkered down behind it. Giant bergs of ice erupted on the far side of the sword. Fingers of cold clasped around the blade edges. VictoryGreymon yanked his sword free of the ice and pulled hard, separating the blades into pieces.

"What is he doing!?" the Paildramon asked loudly to the other two digimon.

VictoryGreymon smirked as he slotted the parts of his swords into his gauntlets and then raised the large blades.

"Trident Gaia!" Victory Greymon swept the blades up, drawing energy into the blades and then thrust them forward, releasing the torrent of orange force.

VictoryGreymon's three enemies roared as they were engulfed by the power. VictoryGreymon swept his bladed arms back and then rushed the three digimon. He sliced through them, and the three digimon smashed away from the blades imbedded in VictoryGreymon's gauntlets. VictoryGreymon glanced slightly behind him. The dragon and the angel were lying on the ground motionless. The metal wolf was struggling to get on its feet.

Further afield he could see ChaosWarGreymon and ShineGreymon entrenched in their battles. Ahead of him, the massive cactus reached into the sky. Small pinpricks denoted the aerial campaign over the sphinx and behind, closer to the cactus. He knew that there were no other Mega digimon; this was the opening he was waiting for. He pushed forward and raged towards the cactus, gathering up energy into his gauntlets for one massive slice that would fell the mighty saguaro.

He cut through ranks of aerial digimon as he entered the edge of the combat zone. He smashed through reams of Okuwamon and Yanmamon. The odd Wingdramon and Coredramon were caught as he sliced through the fray. He charged through the pulsing waves of dog-fighting digimon.

"Wing BLADE!"

"Hell's Masquerade!"

A flaming avian apparition flashed towards him with streak of pink that spiraled around the apparition. VictoryGreymon snorted and slashed through the fire, and smacked the pink stream which phased back into the form of a large insect that twisted and flipped crashing into the back of the sphinx below.

A massive clawed hand smashed down from above. The owner was a large eagle-man, its brick-red wings flared as VictoryGreymon clasped the talon. VictoryGreymon pivoted and swung the eagle-man by the finger spinning a few times before flinging the Ultimate digimon into the closing clouds of Okuwamon.

"Static FORCE!"

Pulses of red energy smashed into VictoryGreymon's side as a blur of red and white jetted past. VictoryGreymon snarled and made a raging slice at the blur. A cyborg bird-man blurred into existence for a second releasing two crimson shurikens at the dragon-man. VictoryGreymon quickly unhooked one of his shields and brought it up deflecting the throwing stars. When the dragon-man's shield lowered the cyborg was gone.

"Irritant Buzz!"

The sonic pulse smashed into VictoryGreymon's exposed back. The sound resonated with his body. He could feel the digital matrix in his body freezing up as his flesh became numb. He struggled to turn his head to see the tyrant bee thrumming its wings at him. He tried to raise his gauntlets but the sonic force seemed to paralyze him. A pink streak flew past him. Its floral form was barely visible as it looped around him.

"Flower Wreath!" He could feel a rope bind around his body with each of the floral blur's revolution around him. He felt his arms pin against his torso as the rope tighten. The blur stopped and buzzed in front of him, it was a small, pink, flower fairy with green, leafy wings. She lifted her arm and the flower around her wrist bloomed into a cannon. "Flower Cannon!"

VictoryGreymon growled as the energy burst broke over his face. He struggled as he felt his body fall, the combination of the bindings and the paralysis was causing his basic capacity of flight to fail. He was falling, tumbling towards the desert sands below.

He wasn't going to be stopped by a pathetic handful of Ultimate digimon. He didn't care what tricks they knew. He struggled and strained. He took a deep breath and roared angrily and tore through the vines that bound him, slicing his gauntlets through the air. He spun around and roared upward at the bee and fairy.

"Irritant…"

VictoryGreymon snarled and sliced forward with his bladed gauntlets, creating a blast of wind shattering the pulsing vibrations that were building around the ancient insect. The giant eagle flashed its wings and released a phantom hawk towards him, and the cyborg sliced spinning shurikens of energy towards him as the fairy lifted its flower cannon.

"Enough!" roared VictoryGreymon. He drew the blades attached to his gauntlets together and drew them up. Energy flooded up the blades building into a large sphere at the tips. "Trident GAIA!"

He flung the golden orb forward. It exploded and the four digimon were flung in four directions, spiraling towards the ground. VictoryGreymon snorted and turned, looking towards the saguaro and he rocketed onwards towards it, cutting swathes through resistance.

"Pit Bomb!" An explosion smashed into VictoryGreymon's snout and the digimon snarled as he twisted around, to find the winged, pink tennis ball buzz passed him spinning a long spear in front of himself. "You go no further…"

"Another pathetic little insect…" VictoryGreymon growled, skidding to a stop in mid-air. "How many of you ants must I crush before I can finish my mission for Lord Goddramon?"

"I am Piximon, protector of this sector!" The pink digimon said sweeping his spear in front of him and pointing it at VictoryGreymon. "I will not allow you to destroy this Destiny Tree! Yep-Yep!"

"You have no choice. Your digi-destined pets have been defeated, and you have no power to stop me, your army is eviscerated, your allies crushed." VictoryGreymon growled, lifting his gauntlets. The light flashed across his blades. "No one would blame you for retreating in the face of my overwhelming power." He looked behind him as the Wingdramon rose up behind him. "Do the smart thing…"

"You'll forgive an old mon, some senile foolishness." Piximon said as he twirled his spear in his hand. He snatched his spear with his other hand and swung it in front of him in a broad arc. "Then again, maybe it is you who has been foolish!"

The spearhead sliced down releasing a pulse of energy that exploded in front of VictoryGreymon. The dragon-man covered his eyes in the face of the bright explosion. VictoryGreymon snarled as his vision came back. Piximon was smirking and behind him high above the saguaro a cloud had formed. VictoryGreymon grunted as he looked closer, the cloud wasn't a cloud he could see glints of metal against the sun.

"SMILEY BOMB!"

"ENERGY BOMB!"

The chorus roared from the cloud. The cloud sparkled as energy bombs rained down. VictoryGreymon snarled as the torrent of offense raged against him. The Wingdramon screamed as the energy assault sliced through them.

"Assaultmon! Lock onto the aerial targets!" A robotic voice shouted. VictoryGreymon looked down to see a silver robot pointing upward, in front of hundreds of metal centaurs.

"Justice Massacre!" hundreds of cannons flared to life.

VictoryGreymon smashed his shields in front of him as the bursts of energy raged against the chrome digizoid. He heard the Wingdramon and Coredramon forces deleting roaring in pain and fleeing the field. He growled as he rose further upwards caught in between the aerial ambush and the ground attack. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a Mekanorimon diving down from the cloud of Mamemon and MetalMamemon. It was acting erratically. VictoryGreymon narrowed his eyes, and that's when he saw it, that man's head.

"The digital sprite!" VictoryGreymon shouted, shrugging off the attacks. He pointed his bladed gauntlets at the Mekanorimon and shouted the surviving Wingdramon and Coredramon. "Capture the sprite!"

He twisted to chase after the Mekanorimon, when a blue flash flew in front of him. VictoryGreymon turned and saw the wolf rocketing towards him. The wolf's front paws slammed VictoryGreymon in the chest and pushed off it, twisting in the air and turning to him.

"Ready for round two?" growled the wolf as eyes flashed with an icy glare. The rockets on its airfoils flared. "Because I am!" The wolf's mouth opened. "Metal Wolf Claw!"

888

Piximon tumbled downward slicing through hordes of dragons as he escorted the Mekanorimon that Gennai was driving. He buzzed through Coredramon, slicing through them with his spear. He buzzed close to the Mekanorimon. Gennai's head was poking out from the top of the metal chassis.

"You kinda cut that close don't you think?" Piximon said as he whorled around Gennai clearing out offending dragon digimon. "I was really strongly thinking of backing down if you hadn't shown up."

"Yeah, I know." Shouted Gennai as his hair whipped around his face. He smiled and looked at Piximon. "But did you see that entrance!? IT WAS SO COOL!"

"Stay focused!" yelped Piximon. "We're still not out of this!"

"I know that!" Gennai replied, he turned his head back and watched as blue and orange blurs smashed across the sky. "We need to regroup at the sphinx. Andromon will be waiting for us there!"

"The digi-destined are there as well!" Piximon shouted as he dove in front of the Mekanorimon.

"Yes, I noticed." Gennai said as he rocketed alongside of Piximon. He looked off in the distance and saw the other fights in the desert. "Where's Ogremon?"

"With the children." Piximon replied, looking back at Gennai.

Gennai's blue eyes narrowed. "Then we need to get there even sooner."

"You think he would…?" Piximon looked over at Gennai.

"First excuse." Gennai said, pushing forward and flaring the Mekanorimon's engines.

888

The sphinx shook and the children scrambled as bits of the ceiling fell from above. Ogremon growled as he watched the Goblimon around him scatter.

"That came from behind." Mimi said looking back into the dark halls further into the sphinx.

"Then the line's been breached." Ogremon snarled turning towards the front of the sphinx where the opening was. He looked down at his Goblimon. "Form up, set up a barricade, we make our stand here."

"But…" the Goblimon looked at each other and then to Ogremon.

"You heard what I said!" Ogremon roared waving his club above his head.

The Goblimon yelped and jumped to action. Ogremon turned to the kids. They had resumed their huddle around the whizz kid's computer.

"WarGreymon and SaberLeomon are only slowing down the two Megas they're facing and it looks like VictoryGreymon's pushed passed Metal Garurumon. He's right above us!" The whizz kid said, furrowing his brow and looking up at the ceiling. He brought his head back down to the laptop. "It looks like DinoBeemon, Garudamon, Lillymon and Silphymon are engaging him…"

"They can't face him!" Mimi yelped. "He's a Mega digimon!"

"We totally got this! We faced off against Black WarGreymon lots of times!" The young kid wearing the goggles said, rubbing his nose with his thumb.

"Yeah, unsuccessfully…" The pink haired girl with glasses grumbled.

"We're not out yet!" the flame-jacketed boy said. "We can do this!"

"The rest of the rebel forces are in disarray…" The smallest child whispered, looking at the screen. "It's a complete rout."

"If someone doesn't stop him, VictoryGreymon will smash the Destiny Tree…" Jyou said as he looked at the others.

Ogremon turned his head back and looked to the Goblimon, and then he turned and looked at the kids. His eyes narrowed and he clutched his cudgel tightly. There was another explosion that shook the ground, the children staggered, the Goblimon yelped, and even Ogremon had to brace himself.

"You have to give me more power." Ogremon growled as he walked towards the kids.

"What are you talking about?" the old leader said, turning his head to Ogremon. "We've contributed everything we have. Our digimon are as strong as they can be!"

"Tai's right, we're doing what we can!" the older blonde boy said, his blue eyes flashing in the computer light.

"That's not what I mean!" Ogremon returned. "Give me what you gave Leomon!"

"What we gave Leomon?" the younger blonde with the floppy hat looked up.

"What do you mean?" the sandy haired girl next to the younger blonde asked.

"I need to warp digivolve!" Ogremon snarled in annoyance.

"Wait…we can do that?" the flame jacketed boy with the goggles looked up at the other children.

"SaberLeomon's ability to digivolve came from us hitting him with energy from out digivices a long time ago." The older blonde said. "We didn't even know that ability would survive his reformatting. We didn't even know it would happen at all!"

"I still don't understand how it happened…and there's no way to know if we can do it again, especially now that our digivices have upgraded to D-3s!" The cinnamon haired whizz kind said, shooting a glare up at Ogremon. "It is highly dangerous, very risky. We don't know what kind of affect it could have on you! Never mind that Leomon only got the ability after lots of interactions with our digivices!"

"At a time like this, that doesn't matter!" Ogremon shouted glaring at the collected twelve digi-destined. "If I can't warp digivolve then we're all dead, I can't protect you from…" Ogremon growled and looked past the children into the shadows of the hallway. He gripped his club and leapt over the children. "Don't think I don't see you there!" He clenched his fist, a lavender aura formed around his knuckles. "Pummel…"

A metallic hand flashed out grabbing Ogremon's fist and flung the muscle-bound, green digimon into the wall of the corridor.

"Please do not assault me, I am an ally." The voice of Andromon intoned as he emerged from the shadows. He released Ogremon and walked up to the digi-destined. "I bring you good news. I have brought many reinforcements from Metal City; we are currently pushing back the dragons!"

"Took you long enough," grumbled Ogremon as he stood up dusting his pants off.

"Metal Garurumon is re-engaging VictoryGreymon!" The whizz kid cheered, pointing at the laptop screen.

"Gennai should be reconnoitering with us shortly." Andromon said, looking towards the front entrance. "His Mekanorimon is on approach now…"

The metallic chassis of the digimon eclipsed the light of the entrance. It marched several meters in before a thin man in beige robes leapt out of the chassis and landed on the sandstone floor. Beside him was Piximon who buzzed alongside him.

"Digi-destined! I'm glad to see you haven't been harmed!" Gennai called as he jogged towards them. "Sorry for the late arrival, we got caught up in a small skirmish on our way here."

"We might actually win this one…" The flame jacketed boy said clenching his fists near his chest and smiling.

"It's not over yet!" Piximon replied as he flew to the children. "There are still lots of dragons out there, and all three of their Mega generals! It's still teetering on the brink…but the future is looking much better now!"

Gennai nodded to what Piximon said. "The battle is far from over…" He looked to the twelve children in front of him. "The war is even further from over. The dragons are powerful, ruthless, and increasingly organized. They are already starting to shift from campaigns of fear and destruction to campaigns of guile and corruption. The Mega digimon you are facing are from a village not far from here connived of their freedom by the promises of security and peace being advertised by the adherents of the Great Dragons."

"That's why we need to stop them here and now." The flame jacketed child said. "Change the course of this whole battle, and show them that we're not quitting!"

A loud smashing sound came from the roof of the sphinx. It was quickly followed by a massive explosion. The ceiling erupted downwards several meters in front of the children, where the Goblimon had set up barricades. In the rubble were Metal Garurumon, DinoBeemon, Paildramon, Silphymon, Garudamon, Lillymon and MagnaAngemon. The seven digimon groaned in the circle of light created by the new sun roof. A shadow swept down. VictoryGreymon landed in the circle of light, perching on a huge block of sandstone.

"Metal Garurumon!" The eldest blonde shouted he pushed to run forward but the other older children grabbed him.

"Matt wait, you can't!" The older girl with short, brown hair grabbed the blonde's arm.

The Mega digimon turned its head and looked to the assembled digi-destined. Then his eyes locked on Gennai. "My masters want to talk to you, sprite."

"Yes, I wondered when we'd get to that particular game of hide and seek…" Gennai said with a disinterested voice. "I've met your masters before, and don't exactly care for their conversational skills." He turned his head to the children. "It involves bamboo stakes and your fingernails, and water dripping and iron maidens…which wouldn't be so bad, but dragons have such cold hands…" He turned back to VictoryGreymon, and clutched the lapels of his cloak, "and if I'm going to be tortured, it's going to be by someone that has the courtesy of warming their hands first. Give me that one little dignity! I mean, I'm kinda important! I'm a genius!"

"Be as flippant as you like, but you're coming with me, sprite." VictoryGreymon leapt down from the rubble and slowly stalked towards the children and assorted digital beings in front of him. "There's no one left to stop me now…"

"Metal Garurumon you have to get up!" The older blonde shouted.

"Come on guys! You've fought tougher digimon than this!" the flame-jacketed boy yelled. "Get up!"

"I'm going to try and get a hold of one of our other digimon!" The whizz kid yelped as the dragon-man stalked closer.

"If you want Gennai, you'll have to go through us! Yep Yep!" Piximon shouted buzzing in front of the kids.

Andromon jumped next to him. "My operating system will not allow you to succeed! I will protect the children and Gennai!"

"Ogremon, take the kids and Gennai, run! We'll hold off VictoryGreymon!" Piximon shouted looking back to Ogremon. "Hopefully Metal Garurumon and the others will wake back up, and we can put an end to this finally!"

"I'm not a babysitter! I can help you guys!" Ogremon shouted, clutching his club and clenching his fist.

"You are our last hope, Ogremon! If me and Andromon fall, it's up to you do slow this guy down so the kids and Gennai can escape!" Piximon shouted. "Now stop arguing and GO!"

Ogremon snorted, and then looked back at Gennai and the digi-destined. He then looked up to VictoryGreymon, Piximon and Andromon. He growled loudly and then turned. "Fine then, come on, there's an exit in the back!"

He ran slightly in front of the children with Gennai right behind him. They turned a corner. The whole of the sphinx shook, rocks and dust came down around them. Ogremon could hear the fighting behind them. Feel the power on display. Another tremor ripped through the sphinx and then another. They became increasingly violent.

"Hurry, the exit is this way!" he heard one of the children shout, it sounded like the whizz kid.

There was a loud creaking, and another jolt rocked the sphinx. A snap cracked through the air. Ogremon slid to a stop holding his arms back barricading the children and Gennai behind him as the ceiling in front of them crashed down. Boulders of sandstone and mountains of dust filled in the passage. Ogremon, Gennai and the children staggered backward as the cloud of detritus flew past them. They all coughed as dust swirled around their faces.

"Is that the only way out?" one of the girls asked.

"Other than the way that is blocked by VictoryGreymon, yes." Gennai said calmly. The man turned to the children.

"I can't get a hold of any of our digimon." The whizz kid said in frustration. "Gennai, what do we do?"

"There is nothing more to do than play for time…" Gennai said quietly.

The man looked sternly in the direction they'd just fled from. Heavy, clawed footsteps could be heard slowly walking towards them. The sound of something scraping on the ground hissed through the air. Ogremon snarled as he pushed through the children and past Gennai. The shadows of the corridors seemed to pull back like a veil revealing VictoryGreymon. In his left hand he held Piximon, limp and unconscious. He dragged Andromon by the scruff of his neck with his right hand. The android's body was cracked, dented and twisted.

VictoryGreymon tossed the two digimon at Ogremon's feet and then looked to Gennai.

"Will you surrender now?" VictoryGreymon growled, glaring at the man with fatal green eyes. "Your tactics have failed. Your defenders are crushed. Your escape is cut off. Surely this is evidence that humanity's destiny is to be crushed by the might of the gods?"

"Everyone has a bad day, VictoryGreymon." Gennai said coldly. His fists closed at his sides. "This day isn't over yet. I'm not convinced it's going to end badly."

"I will slaughter the children, sprite." VictoryGreymon said lifting his gauntlets. "In front of your eyes, I will kill them."

"No, you won't…" Gennai replied. He cast his eyes down to Andromon and Piximon. "You spared them."

"It was unnecessary to destroy them." VictoryGreymon said coldly, not even looking down at the two broken digimon on the ground. "Would you want me to start with them?"

"NO!" Mimi ran forward. "Why do you have to be evil? You don't want to hurt people…if you did you'd have killed Piximon and Andromon! Can't we just get along!?"

"The gods of this world demand obedience." VictoryGreymon growled, drawing up one of his claws. "As long as digimon believe that they have freedom to choose, freedom to find their own destiny; chaos will rule the world, and destruction and death will follow. This war will end the insanity of a world you humans corrupted with your ideals. It will return to the days where the strong were in power and the weak knew their place. We will all be safer more secure when that day comes."

"But that's…that's….so screwed up!" the flame-jacketed boy ran forward. "We have to help each other in this world. Help heal each other of our wounds, bring together friends to accomplish things we can't do on our own! You can't let fear of the uncertainty of the danger turn yourself into a monster!"

"ENOUGH!" VictoryGreymon roared, slamming his fist into the wall of the corridor. The entire sphinx shook, rocks fell from on high. "I will not debate this any further! You will surrender to me sprite, or I will slaughter everyone here!"

"Tell them to do it, Gennai." Ogremon growled, stepping in front of the man, putting himself in front of VictoryGreymon. "Tell them to make me like Leomon."

"No, you don't know what will happen." Gennai said firmly. "You could mutate, you could be destroyed by it! I will not allow this travesty to hap-"

"Does it matter now?" Ogremon roared, glaring side-long at Gennai. "If they destroy me, then it doesn't matter, because right now, without the power, I am dead. And then the children are dead and then you are dead. If they turn me into some mutant monstrosity, at least maybe you can point me in that guys' direction," Ogremon indicated to VictoryGreymon with his club, "and you can escape!"

Gennai's lips thinned. He looked at Ogremon, and then glanced up at VictoryGreymon. The dragon-man was bringing his gauntlets up; Ogremon tensed and braced his club in front of him preparing to lay down his life for a group of sniveling kids and a pompous, old digital sprite. Gennai pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes.

"Do it…" Gennai said, sharply.

"But we don't know…." The whizz kid started.

"Do it, do it now!" Gennai shouted; he spun around to the children. "Do it before it's too late! Lift your digivices, point them at Ogremon, DO IT NOW!"

The children jumped. Gennai rarely shouted, rarely got enraged. The children reached to their hips brought up the multicolored devices and pointed them at Ogremon. The devices shook, screamed and blazed with light. Ogremon roared loudly as the lights sliced through him.

"IT BURNS!" Ogremon cried as the lights engulfed him.

888

VictoryGreymon stepped backwards as the light burned forwards engulfing Piximon and Andromon. It sizzled against his upheld gauntlets. He grabbed the shields on his back and pressed them against the light and felt the pressure pushing him back. The light leaked around the edges of his shields and swarmed down the corridor illuminating every nook and cranny, every shadow perished in the place, stabbed in the heart by spears of burning light. His claws dragged on the ground as the force of the light pressed him backwards.

There was a savage roar that cut through the screaming of the digivices. A monstrous, feral snarl reverberated off the walls. That's when he felt the hammer smash against his shields, breaking them apart. VictoryGreymon staggered backwards crashing against a wall behind him. He couldn't see the light was blinding him. He turned to flee, but something grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him to the ground. He felt the weight crush his chest, could smell the breath of something hot and angry in his face. The sound of a chittering snarl echoed in his ears, and once again he felt like he was a Koromon again.

"Where are your gods now, VictoryGreymon?" growled the voice that was owned by the weight.

VictoryGreymon's eyes narrowed. He swallowed his fear. His fist clenched and he swung upwards. He would not be defeated by some human-tamed Ogremon regardless of what unexpected miracle occurred. The weight pushed off of him and VictoryGreymon fired a blast of energy into the ceiling smashing through the roof of the sphinx and he erupted upwards.

"Ogre FLAME!" a molten, orange blast spewed up from the sphinx.

VictoryGreymon swung his shields in front of him as the blast roared past. He could hear the chrome digizoid metal sizzling against the heat. VictoryGreymon stared down at the sphinx, standing on top of it was a large green dinosaur digimon with heavily armored scales on its back, and enormously long sharp sickles on its hind legs that curled into sharp scythes. Dagger-like teeth lined its mouth as it snarled a toothy grin up at VictoryGreymon.

"You think flying away will save you?" growled the digimon.

It narrowed its eyes and crouched deeply before propelling itself into the air. The action was instantaneous, almost too fast to follow. VictoryGreymon reared back as one of the sickles sliced down where he had been only a few seconds ago. The heavily armored tail of the creature slammed into VictoryGreymon's shoulder, smashing the dragon-man digimon towards the ground.

VictoryGreymon tumbled in the air, trying to keep his eye on this newcomer. The dinosaur pivoted in the air and dove, its clawed hands grasping outwards towards the dragon-man. VictoryGreymon snarled and swung one of his arms upwards, drawing energy into his claws.

"Metal Wolf CLAW!" The wolf howl echoed off the valley walls. The spinning tumult of the ongoing campaign nearly froze from the sound of it.

VictoryGreymon's back arced as pillars of ice erupted and formed on his exposed back, calving off of him. He turned his head to see the blazing form of Metal Garurumon galloping up towards him.

"How many times must I put you down!?" growled VictoryGreymon.

"You can forget about him!" Roared the new digimon as its weight slammed down on top of VictoryGreymon. The dragon-man jerked his head up to the dinosaur that had embedded its claws into his armor. "You have bigger problems….largely ME!"

"What are you!?" growled VictoryGreymon.

"I am DinoRexmon!" roared the dinosaur. It opened its maw. "OGRE FLAME!"

The flames engulfed VictoryGreymon as he fell backward. His head turned; in the distance he could see ShineGreymon. "It's up to you brother…."

The flames ate his body and he burst into data.

888

WarGreymon's gauntlets smashed into ChaosWarGreymon's shield as the two Mega digimon whorled in the air. Angewomon and Shakkoumon got shots in where they could, but the truth of the matter was that at best they were simply annoying the gray cast WarGreymon. The two behemoths wrestled in the sky, grappling with each other, clashing their dramon-destroyers against each other. Each blow erupting in a massive pulse of shockwaves that shook the air and the ground.

Occasionally one of the digimon would get a hit through, smashing a fist into the solar plexuses or nailing an uppercut to the chin. The two though were evenly matched with the same skill sets. It was like watching them shadow box each other, neither giving an inch, neither taking an inch.

Behind them SaberLeomon, MegaKabuterimon and Zudomon were being pushed back by an increasingly belligerent ShineGreymon. A combination of coordinated attacks and well-timed usage of available openings had slowed the red and white dragon-man but the beast still advanced, increasingly smashing through the three digimon's defenses and sending them flying back in retreat in front of his overwhelming firepower.

Both groups were tangentially aware of VictoryGreymon's advance, and the arrival of a cavalry fighting with the rebellion, but in all they were far too busy in their own skirmishes to grab any real details, on the overall campaign. That is, until the explosion.

The destined digimon looked back, and saw the smoke coming from the sphinx. They saw the golden shimmer of VictoryGreymon racing down to the ancient temple. They knew what that meant.

ShineGreymon took the advantage and snatched both MegaKabuterimon and Zudomon and drilled them into the ground before swinging around and slapping SaberLeomon squarely in the jaw with his tail and finishing his attack with a small Glorious Burst. He turned, and started to rocket towards the sphinx.

"TAI!" WarGreymon broke off from ChaosWarGreymon and turned to rocket towards the sphinx.

WarGreymon felt something grab his leg. He felt is weight wretched away from his control and he saw the world swirl in front of him.

"Nah, ah ah ah….you can't go yet!" ChaosWarGreymon tutted as he spun around, his hands firmly grasping WarGreymon's leg.

He finally let go, and WarGreymon spun out of control crashing into Angewomon and then smashing together into Shakkoumon. The clay titan groaned as the force of the hit smashed all three digimon to the ground. ChaosWarGreymon hung over them smirking as they weakly struggled to disentangle themselves from each other.

"We have to get up…" WarGreymon growled. "The kids need us…"

"You see…" ChaosWarGreymon said quietly as he hovered over the downed digimon, "that right there is why you will never win, that is the truth of your ultimate defeat. You human pets will never be able to defeat us, you're too busy protecting something that has nothing to do with you; it distracts your mind and your heart. Your feelings for your human minders are what will destroy you. " ChaosWarGreymon lifted his gauntlets summoning a sphere of energy from the surrounding air. "This world's one rule is that the powerful consume the weak, that the weak are simply weights around the necks of the strong. Those who cannot repay their debts are doomed to destruction! We were weak, and now, we're strong. We see the clarity of our gods' truth now. Your humans are weak, they don't deserve the debt they have from your protection, and your insistence on protecting them has led to your destruction!" The sphere was glowing blood red. ChaosWarGreymon looked down at WarGreymon. "Remember this, in your next life. Remember how your humans got you killed." ChaosWarGreymon looked up at his sphere and smirked and shook his head. "No, bigger!" The sphere doubled in size. "Bigger!" it tripled in size. "BIGGER!" it quadrupled in size. ChaosWarGreymon smirked in satisfaction and looked down to the digimon below. "Goodbye, playthings of the humans." ChaosWarGreymon heaved the sphere up in one hand. "TERRA….."

There was a pulse of light, it raged forth from where the explosion had come. The light rolled out in a massive dome. It crackled through the air. It hit ShineGreymon first who slammed to a stop raising his arms to shield himself from the shining brilliance. Then it struck ChaosWarGreymon whose body went rigid as the energy blasted past him.

The light caressed WarGreymon, and the other destined digimon and SaberLeomon, restoring them as they slowly stood up. WarGreymon positively sparkled as he stared up at ChaosWarGreymon. Angewomon and Shakkoumon rose up behind him. Angewomon's bow fizzing with energy, Shakkoumon's eyes burning with light.

"You may think you have seen the truth." WarGreymon said calmly. He lifted one gauntlet and pointed it at ChaosWarGreymon. "You can try and lay down the law if you're feeling particularly brave." WarGreymon lifted his other gauntlet. "But never ever, try and tell me about my relationship with Taichi!" A sphere formed between WarGreymon's gauntlets, twice the size of ChaosWarGreymon's. "The humans send their regards….TERRA FORCE!"

"CELESTIAL ARROW!"

"JUSTICE BEAM!"

ChaosWarGreymon's pupils shrunk as the light from the assault raged towards him, merging, twisting into a giant insurmountable tidal wave of force.

"Im-Impossible…" whispered the dragon-man as the force shredded through his body.

888

ShineGreymon dropped to his knees. It was inconceivable. They were on the cusp of victory. The digi-destined were all but defeated the rebels routed. ShineGreymon's claws dug into the desert sand. He snarled angrily. He felt their presence encircling him. He opened his eyes and saw SaberLeomon standing in front of him. WarGreymon was on his side. Metal Garurumon and a new digimon were on his other side.

"It's over, ShineGreymon." SaberLeomon growled, glaring at ShineGreymon. "Your army is defeated, you're outnumbered. Surrender!"

"Surrender?" ShineGreymon growled, glaring at the ground. "A servant of the gods abase himself to the likes of you?"

"You can join your brothers." Snarled the green dinosaur. "I'll happily make that happen for you. The question is will you go down screaming and frightened out of your mind or will you go down with some dignity."

ShineGreymon snarled. He and his brothers were dignified digimon, repaying a debt, serving their gods with faith and fidelity. How dare this nothing of a digimon dare pass judgment over him? How dare any of them demand his surrender? Only a few hours ago they were on the brink of victory? Only a few hours ago the rebels and the digi-destined were on the ropes nearly defeated. He and his brothers' debts were almost repaid. That was a few hours ago, now his brothers were gone and he was facing ignoble defeat at the hands of ragtag bunch of impotent digimon.

"No!" growled ShineGreymon.

"No?" one of the destined digimon asked.

"NO!" ShineGreymon roared. He could feel the blood boiling under his armor. He could feel the rage burning around him. Red flooded into his vision. He looked down at his hands and saw dark flames engulfing his arms and claws. He could feel the power burning from him. His wings opened and erupted with dark flames.

888

"I told you we had this!" Daisuke said as he rode down from the sphinx in Paildramon's arms. "Chalk this one up for us!"

Paildramon touched ground and put Daisuke down.

"Don't get too cocky." Taichi said, looking out into the distance. The Mega digimon plus Angewomon, Shakkoumon, Zudomon and MegaKabuterimon were still encircled around ShineGreymon. "It's not over yet…"

"What are we going to do if ShineGreymon surrenders?" Mimi asked as she walked up from behind the two boys.

"I suspect we would have to imprison him…" Iori replied, looking at the scene in the distance.

"Where could we do that?" Ken asked, frowning slightly. He looked down at Iori. "Where would be secure enough? Where would have strong enough bars to hold him?"

"What about the Dark Whirlpool?" Miyako asked looking to the others.

"That would be the same as destroying him." Hikari said, shaking her head.

"What else can we do?" Sora asked, looking sternly towards the scene in the distance.

"Isn't this all putting the cart before the horse?" Gennai said, looking off in the distance.

"What do you mean?" Takeru said; the blond looked up at Gennai.

"ShineGreymon is a dragon digimon, not touched by the power of humanity." Gennai said slowly. "The Great Dragons have his complete and total devotion, he has no true will of his own, he will never submit to us by choice." Gennai narrowed his eyes. "And we cannot maintain his forced submission."

"You're not really suggesting…" Mimi gasped.

"I fear that we won't have a choice." Gennai said, drawing his hood over his head. He turned to the children, and as he did so a lavender explosion roared into the air.

The wind roared passed the children and the digimon with them. The children put their arms up shielding their eyes from the sand whipping past them.

"What was that!?" Daisuke shouted as he staggered backward against the skin.

"I believe it was our horse running off without our cart." Gennai said, as he pulled his robes tighter around himself as the wind swept past him.

"Was that…was that a digivolution?" Koushiro gaped as he watched a large object rise from the ground. It looked vaguely like ShineGreymon covered in black flames.

888

Metal Garurumon grunted as he slowly stood to his feet. He looked around him. DinoRexmon and SaberLeomon were laid out next to each other. WarGreymon was on his hands and knees. MegaKabuterimon, Zudomon, Angewomon and Shakkoumon had de-digivolved to their In-Training forms.

Above him, ShineGreymon raged. A lavender aura burned around him. It had filled in the metallic spokes that formed the digimon's wings forming large lavender wings formed of fire. ShineGreymon reached out with his clawed hands. The aura around him condensed, in one hand forming a burning, lavender sword, in the other hand a swirling, lavender shield. The creature seethed as it stared forward.

"I shall repay our debt to our gods." ShineGreymon growled. His flaming wings flared, and he started to roar towards the tree.

"WarGreymon, we have to stop him!" Metal Garurumon growled as he looked to the dragon-man digimon.

WarGreymon nodded and leapt into the air, rocketing after ShineGreymon. Metal Garurumon turned to SaberLeomon and DinoRexmon. The two stirred and slowly lifted themselves up. There was no time to inform them of the change, and Metal Garurumon galloped after ShineGreymon. He leapt into the air and his rockets burned as he raced after WarGreymon.

"Terra Force!" WarGreymon launched a sphere of energy at ShineGreymon.

ShineGreymon tilted its head back and shifted slightly letting the sphere fly past him and explode harmlessly into the sky. The aura enhanced digimon twisted, turning back to WarGreymon. It clenched its hand around the hilt of its flaming sword.

"Burn!" ShineGreymon snarled, slicing his sword forward.

The sword blazed forward. The lavender flames roared towards WarGreymon. WarGreymon clashed his brave shields together as the flames smashed into him. WarGreymon grunted as the flames pushed him backward. The lavender blaze licked around the edges of the shields.

"WarGreymon!" Metal Garurumon shouted, as he rushed forward. Metal Garurumon narrowed his eyes and built the cold in his throat. "Metal Wolf Claw!"

A torrent of ice and cold flew towards ShineGreymon. The lavender enshrouded dragon-man tilted its head towards the oncoming blizzard. He lifted the fire shield up. The ice pulsed against the shield melting and evaporating with a loud hiss.

"Twin Fang!"

"Ogre Flame!"

A spray of metallic needles and a molten blast of fire roared up, smashing into ShineGreymon's exposed chest. SaberLeomon and DinoRexmon were charging forward below. ShineGreymon snarled, drawing back.

"I don't have time for this!" growled ShineGreymon.

He roared, and a blast ripped forward from his aura. He pulled his sword back and lifted it and swiped outwards towards his aggressors. The blade blazed forward, zigzagging smashing into all four Mega digimon. The four Mega digimon smashed to the ground.

Metal Garurumon looked up, his body was stiff. His chest burned. He sneered as he watched ShineGreymon turn its back to them and rocket towards the cactus. Metal Garurumon stood up, wobbled slightly and then stepped forward, before pushing into a gallop. ShineGreymon raged forwards. The reinforcements from Metal City swirled around in front the Destiny Tree. They were like a twisting cloud of starlings in response to a hawk. The swirls of Mamemon and Metal Mamemon warped and pulsed as they moved towards the lavender comet rocket raging towards them.

Metal Garurumon narrowed his eyes as he watched the cloud of digimon crash down on the comet like a tsunami. There was a lavender flash and the wave of Mamemon exploded dispersing in all directions. He had to get there, there was nothing left stopping ShineGreymon from striking the tree.

888

"We need to get out of here!" shouted Jyou from underneath the bulk of Paildramon.

The sky above the children was a swirling lavender miasma and screaming digimon.

"What the hell is that thing!?" shouted Daisuke as he struggled out from underneath the dragon.

"It's ShineGreymon, but some kind of I don't know, mode change…" Koushiro said as he braced against the wind.

"Where's Shakkoumon?" Iori called out.

"He was still with Metal Garurumon and WarGreymon when that thing…happened." Miyako shouted.

"Garudamon, take the children, get to a digi-port." Gennai shouted, as he looked up at the storm building above.

"NO!" Daisuke shouted, spinning around on Gennai. "I'm not running again! We've haven't lost yet, look!" Daisuke pointed to a blue blur flaring towards ShineGreymon. "We're not beaten!"

"It's Metal Garurumon!" Yamato shouted. "But where's WarGreymon?"

"Further back!" Taichi shouted pointed. An orange flare raced up from the desert sands.

"See, we've got this!" Daisuke shouted over the wind.

"None the less…" Jyou said, adjusting his glasses. "We can't stay here. We should move to a safe location."

"Should we help Metal Garurumon and WarGreymon?" Paildramon asked, as looked upwards.

"Could you even touch the ends of that thing?" Ken asked, looking up at the burning aura of ShineGreymon.

"We can't just sit here and watch?" DinoBeemon's voice warbled.

"Exactly what I'm saying!" Daisuke said.

"But would we even be able to affect that thing?" Lillymon asked as she buzzed around Mimi. "Four Mega digimon could barely catch its attention."

"Our primary duty is protecting the kids," Garudamon growled, she looked around at the twelve children and Gennai, "whether they want us to or not. In whatever means is necessary, because we love them."

"Garudamon is correct." Gennai said. "Take them, Garudamon."

"NO!" shouted Daisuke.

"Daisuke, stop arguing!" Hikari shouted. The other children looked at the tan-haired girl. She was glaring at Daisuke. "What good is it if we are all killed? Putting up a brave face for a stupid pointless reason is precisely that, pointless and stupid!" She walked up to Daisuke and reached out and grabbed his hand. "Please, we're only a distraction for them in this kind of situation."

Daisuke narrowed his eyes, but as he looked in the girl's eyes his tenseness softened and he sighed. "Ok…let's go then!"

"We have to find Armadillomon, too!" Iori said, looking up at Garudamon.

"Of course." Garudamon said nodding as she lowered her hand and gathered the children up.

"What about you, Gennai?" Takeru asked looking back at the man in the cowled robes.

"We will protect, Gennai." Piximon said.

"We will escort him to a location of safety." Andromon said, looking down to the man.

"Tch, I can take care of myself." Gennai said with a scowl. "I've lived a long time before anyone bothered to think about protecting me. I'm a tough old bird."

"We better get moving if we're moving." MagnaAngemon said as he pointed upwards. The blue and golden streaks were approaching ShineGreymon. "We'll get caught in the middle of it if we wait too much longer."

Taichi lifted his D-3 to his lips. "Be safe, WarGreymon….come back to me Agumon…."

"Metal Garurumon, I wish I could help you more…" Yamato said to his D-3.

Garudamon flared her wings and took off. The rest of the Ultimate digimon took off behind her, holding a defensive position behind her as she retreated back towards where ShineGreymon had changed.

888

ShineGreymon simmered in front of the saguaro. He held his sword out to his side. He was going to fell the Destiny Tree in one slice, and then he was going to snatch that sprite, and then just to finish it completely he was going to destroy the digi-destined and their impotent quorum of rebellious allies.

"METAL WOLF CLAW!"

Ice raged against ShineGreymon's back. He growled as he looked back towards the oncoming wolf. The wolf came to a stop. It opened all its gun ports. Missiles flew forward. ShineGreymon twisted swinging his flaming sword through the hornets' nest of missiles. The projectiles exploded.

"You can stop this!" shouted the voice of the WarGreymon. ShineGreymon tilted its head towards the golden-armored digimon.

"Yes, I can finish it." ShineGreymon said, swinging his sword at WarGreymon.

WarGreymon swooped out of the sword's way. "That's not what I mean! You don't have to do this!"

"I am a servant of the gods." ShineGreymon replied, he turned back to the giant cactus. "I have no choice but to follow their commandment!"

"Don't do it!" WarGreymon shouted.

ShineGreymon sliced forward with his sword. The lavender flames burned through the cactus. The flesh of the plant hissed and sizzled as the blade burned through it. The cactus shifted, shook, the needles rained down, crashing down onto the desert below. A black spire erupted from the core of the cactus, smashing into the sky, creating a black vortex.

The winds whipped around as the three Mega digimon looked up. A shadowy visage of a city shimmered in the sky. Lightning licked across the breach. ShineGreymon could feel the tug against him.

"That city…" ShineGreymon narrowed his eyes; he looked back to the other two digimon. "That's their world, isn't it?"

"What difference does it make!?" Metal Garurumon shouted. The wolf swung around trying to put himself between ShineGreymon and the vortex.

"If I strike there now…I can end this completely…" ShineGreymon growled, looking past Metal Garurumon to the city in the shadows. "The humans' world is their sanctuary…if that is not secure then they will never come back!"

"You'd never survive!" shouted WarGreymon. "The breach isn't stable you'll get shredded before you even get across!"

"It doesn't matter." ShineGreymon said. "There are no other options. Either you will destroy me, or I will fight you until I expire. I will never be able to finish my mission. In order to obtain the power I have now I had to shatter my digicore…and the power within it is burning me out as we speak. I only have a little while now. I will use my remaining time to make one final strike against my gods' enemies."

"The humans in that city are not part of this!" Metal Garurumon shouted. "How could that be the will of your gods!?"

"My gods are at war with your humans." ShineGreymon said, almost entirely to himself. "There are no innocents in war."

ShineGreymon reached back, heaving his sword backward and then threw himself forward towards the vortex. WarGreymon and Metal Garurumon launched themselves at him in response. The two Mega digimon smashed into ShineGreymon, heaving their bulk and power into his shoulders. ShineGreymon roared angrily as he pushed against the two Mega digimon. The rockets on ShineGreymon's back flared, and he pushed through the two Mega digimon. ShineGreymon dispelled his sword and shield and swept his hands in front of his chest where an enormous lavender fireball formed. He raged forward into the breach.

"WE HAVE TO STOP HIM!" shouted Metal Garurumon.

ShineGreymon raged forward. He took a look behind him briefly and saw the two digimon racing towards him, until a bolt of energy ripped across the vortex barring their further pursuit. He then looked forward. The city was still enshrouded in fog. Energy ripped everywhere in the inside of the breach. It reached out towards him, grabbing him. It tore at his physical matrix, stripping his armor from him.

ShineGreymon snarled, they were right, he wouldn't survive but he would still make his strike.

"GLORIOUS BURST!"

The fire ball ripped forward. Energy swooshed towards him as the breach started to wobble. It sizzled as it tore through his body. ShineGreymon tumbled backward looked back towards the Digital World as he fell, watching the vortex's aperture closing in on him. The walls of the breach clamped around his body, in one final breath crushed him into the nothingness of the void.

888

Jianliang stood at the window. The storm above Kyoto flashed as lightning blazed across the sky. Jianliang's father, Janyuu Lee was a UN researcher for DATS and was in a meeting with a Professor at Kyoto University about the events of last Christmas. His reflection flared in the window and he could see his olive skin, and dark brown eyes. He was wearing an orange vest jacket and a dark blue shirt.

"It looks like it could really rain." Jiangliang said as he watched the clouds twist in the sky.

"Maybe we shouldn't be so close to the window." A small bunny-eared creature said looking up beside Jiangliang.

"Why?" the boy asked, looking down at the digimon.

"I sense…a digimon…" the bunny-eared creature said as he looked up. "A big one…"

"Here? Preposterous." Jiangliang said, smiling. His family had been in China at Christmas, when the digimon arrived. He and his sister Shaochung had helped lead digimon away from Beijing. "The barriers between the worlds are…"

There was a flash of light. The sky flared bright crimson. Jiangliang turned and watched as a comet emerged from the vortex of storm clouds. The crimson sphere burned across the sky before exploding towards the business district. Jiangliang instantly covered his eyes as the explosion turned the inky black sky to sterling, burning daylight. Seconds after the light came the thunder. The entire university building shook.

"Get down!" shouted the bunny-eared digimon as it leapt up pushing Jiangliang to the ground just as the window exploded inward.

The glass tinkled on the ground as Jianliang slowly rose to his feet. The sounds of car alarms, sirens and people screaming filled his ears. He slowly picked up the digimon, gently brushing the glass off of it. He looked out the window.

"What was that, Terriermon?" Jiangliang asked. The storm roared overhead.

"A digimon?" the bunny-eared digimon said, looking at the storm. "I thought I sensed a digimon, but I don't sense anything now…."

888

"_Hundreds are severely injured." _The voice over the radio said. _"Two deaths are attributed to the meteorite that exploded in the lower atmosphere this morning over the city of Kyoto. Power is still out in three wards, and hundreds of thousands of customers are still without electricity." _

"We're sorry." Koromon and Tsunomon said as the looked up at the children in the computer room. "The barrier kept us from stopping him…"

"You guys did everything you could, don't worry, buddy we don't blame you." Taichi said patting Koromon's head. He looked up at the other children sitting around him. "Look we did everything we could. We can't win them all…"

"Can't win them all?" Yamato said looking up at the brunette. "Two people are dead, hundreds are injured."

"Ok, I realize that." Taichi said, frowning. "So what's your plan, Yamato? What could we have done differently?"

"I don't know." Yamato admitted, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm not saying that we could've done much more than what we did, but we can't let this kind of thing keep happening."

"The barrier is a mess." Koushiro said, shaking his head. "We couldn't go to the Digital World now if we wanted to. Whatever is going to happen at least for the next few days, it's up to our allies in the Digital World to deal with it, we're effectively barred from going in to help."

"All I know, is I hope they don't hit at three in the morning again…" Jyou said, yawning slightly into his hand. He gathered up some books. "I'm off; I have to catch up on stuff I missed in school today."

"It sounds like there isn't much we can do at least for right now." Miyako said, looking up at the other children. "Shouldn't we…I don't know, look into who died, try and help those who were hurt? Send some kind of sympathy basket…or get together some relief packages?"

"That sounds very nice." Hikari said smiling.

"I'll help you." Iori said, standing up.

"Right, I'll keep you guys apprised of any information on the barrier." Koushiro said, as he turned to his computer. "We should be on alert just in case something slips through the barrier though."

The other kids nodded, got up and exited the computer lab with their digimon. Daisuke stopped and turned.

"Koushiro…" Daisuke looked up at the cinnamon haired boy.

"Yes?" Koushiro said, looking up from his computer.

"You do think we can win?" Daisuke asked.

"It's not the time to second guess ourselves, Daisuke." Koushiro said quietly. "This is definitely one of the most difficult situations I can think of us being in, outside of the initial attack by Myotismon way back in the beginning." Koushiro looked back at his computer. His eyes rose and looked over the edge of the screen. "Don't worry, Daisuke, we'll find a way to turn this around. Sometimes things have to darken quite a bit before they get better. As they say, it's always darkest before the dawn. Keep a positive attitude, we can't give up, we have to keep trying as long as we can."

Daisuke smiled, nodded and departed.

Koushiro frowned slightly, and stared at his laptop. A message window was open. He sighed as he read the message to himself.

"_Koushiro, I fear that Metal City has fallen, the attack came from Holydramon as Andromon and his army was supporting us in the Los Conchos valley. – Gennai". _

888

"Your stratagem was a failure." Megidramon said as he hovered over Goddramon's shoulder.

"I cannot see how you could make that calculation, brother." Goddramon said, half attending to the conversation as he perused information flitting over a screen.

"Our army was nearly destroyed, three of our generals were destroyed, and we did not complete our objective in capturing the digital sprite." Megidramon growled narrowing his yellow eyes at the golden dragon.

"The two rebel armies were eviscerated in the battle, the generals you are concerned about were always liquid assets that were derived from a paltry population of non-dramon digimon, we did destroy the Destiny Tree and I have confirmed my hypothesis that the trees are linked to the barrier between our world and the humans' world." Goddramon turned to Megidramon. "The sprite's freedom is limited for as we speak Holydramon is leading an army in an extermination campaign against the retreating resistance of Metal City. Lastly, but not least, reports suggest that ShineGreymon launched an attack directly upon the human's world. As I see it, brother, rather than a failure, we have delivered a demoralizing defeat to the digi-destined."

"I want that sprite, Goddramon." Megidramon snarled, placing one of his clawed hands on Goddramon's shoulder.

"He is one against our mighty armies, against us three." Goddramon winced, as he looked into Megidramon's eyes.

"One is all that is needed." Megidramon growled. "Don't let his appearance fool you, brother." Megidramon released Goddramon and turned and started to fly away, the red wyvern turned its head back to Goddramon. "He is by far the most threatening enemy we face…"

888

Gennai sat in the deepest chamber of Piximon's hideout. His head was bowed and his arms folded over his chest. He sensed the presence of someone and he turned his head.

"Piximon…" Gennai said quietly.

"Gennai, I have a question." Piximon walked forward slowly.

"What is it old friend?" Gennai said quietly.

"Did you know that this would happen?" Piximon asked.

"Know what would happen?" Gennai asked.

"About Ogremon and the humans." Piximon clarified narrowing his eyes.

"It was always a possibility." Gennai responded.

"But did you know?" Piximon replied.

"Yes…" Gennai said quietly.

"But…but…we've been struggling against the dragons for days…weeks…" Piximon exclaimed. "If the digi-destined can do this for us, then why have you been holding this back!?"

"Do you trust Ogremon?" Gennai asked quietly.

"Of course, he's rough around the edges, a bit of an idiot, but he has an honor and nobility to him uncommon in digimon of his ilk!" Piximon said defensively.

"Of his ilk?" Gennai asked quietly. He took a deep breath. "Metal City fell; while Andromon was helping us, Holydramon led an army and destroyed the city. We can't win this war with just our standard allegiances, Piximon. We are going to have to at some point join in compacts with more unscrupulous digimon…would you want to give them the kind of power that was given to Ogremon?"

"Uh…I…"

"Precisely, never mind the fact that this sort of thing is inherently unpredictable, but in the hands of the wrong individual it could be insanely dangerous." Gennai said, his blue eyes narrowed. "Knowledge of this must not be allowed to get out. We don't need gangs of digimon attempting to abduct the digi-destined to obtain the ability to digivolve….understand, Piximon? This is never to be common knowledge."

Piximon nodded slowly and gulped, and turned starting to walk away.

"Piximon, you were caught up in that event as well." Gennai said quietly.

"As was Andromon." Piximon stopped.

"Yes, you realize the implication of my statement?" Gennai said.

"I do, Gennai."

"What do you think?" Gennai asked.

"What will be, will be." Piximon said, and then left Gennai to himself.

"Good answer, good answer." Gennai smirked and turned, sitting down and bowing his head.

888

"You have to be kidding me, General!" Director Johnson said, as he glared up at the older man.

"There's no place in the budget for further acceleration of the program Mr. Johnson." The older man said as he clutched his files. "We're going as fast as we can with the allotted resources."

"They are firing on our cities, General McIntyre!" Director Johnson said, slamming his hands down on the general's desk.

"Yes, I saw your report on the Kyoto meteor event." General McIntyre said quietly. He stroked his moustache.

"That was no meteor." Director Johnson said, gritting his teeth. "The scans don't lie. The vortex was connected to a strange digital signature and that fireball came from the vortex!" Director Johnson took a deep breath through his nose. "But who cares if digital monsters from another universe run roughshod across the world…we've got a budget to maintain."

"Director Johnson! I will have you know that we at the Pentagon have been working tirelessly with the United Nations Information Taskforce, especially with DATS! We are more than aware of the activity in the digital fields." General McIntyre said, looking up at Johnson with cold eyes. "We are doing what we can. And the unfortunate truth is that the US constituency is not terribly concerned about what happens in Kyoto. That being said, there's an increasing push to raise NASA's budget."

"I suppose there's always a silver-lining." Johnson said, with a tone that was unambiguously sarcastic. "All I can say, is I know what is coming, General McIntyre, and what's coming will make the Kyoto event look like a firecracker."

"Yes, and the polar ice caps are melting, Johnson." General McIntyre said, with an equivalent tone of sarcasm. He sorted his files and put them gently on his desk. "Mr. Johnson, keep me up to date with any further developments. You are dismissed."

"I-we aren't done here…we need to get ready…" Director Johnson grumbled narrowing his blonde eyebrows.

"You are dismissed, Director Johnson." The general said, not looking up at the director.

Director Johnson frowned and was about to say something else, but the general looked up at him with that look of a commanding officer who was done being nice. Director Johnson pursed his lips, nodded, and straightened his suit jacket. He turned and left the general's office, closing the door.

As he walked down hall his cellphone rang. He answered it quickly, flipping the phone open. A voice came over the phone.

"No, the blithering idiots have made us a budget item." Johnson grumbled. "We need to start preparing on our own. Initiate emergency protocols; start taking all research documents to bunker forty-two. Find the ones I have check-listed, and talk to Agent Pierson, if we're going to get prepared for this we need to start recruitment and training as soon as possible."

Johnson snapped his phone closed and stuffed it into his pockets. If nothing else, he wasn't going to get blind-sided again.


	13. The Power Behind the Greatness

**I don't own digimon**

**The Power Behind the Greatness**

**888**

Ultimate Brachiomon looked out into the distance. A huge mesquite tree rose up out of the labyrinth of canyons stretched out in front of him. That was his target. His orders from the Great Dragons were to destroy that tree. The dragons had attacked his village a couple of weeks ago. They'd taken him and his fellow Brachimon away.

The dragons had made a grand ordeal of the whole situation, with flashy speeches and propaganda. The dragons filled his stomach with good food and good drink and then promised something most digimon covet over all things, power. The dragons offered them power to evolve, power to rule, and power to protect. The only thing the dragons requested in return was their allegiance.

Ultimate Brachiomon took a deep breath as he took a step forward. He had accepted their offer, but when the dragons gave him the power they promised, he came out different. The other Brachimon had turned into Cannondramon, much to the pleasure of the Great Dragons, but he had turned into an Ultimate Brachiomon. The dragons were displeased, and originally had decided to take back their power. However, one of the dragons, Holydramon, pleaded that he had still use to them and as proof of this he was to destroy one of the Destiny Trees.

So here he was now, with the Destiny Tree in the distance. His gray, steel armor screeched and clanked as his metallic chromed body lurched forward. The smoke stacks on his back puffed as he walked forward. He was surprised that there had been no resistance. The Tyranomon territories were nearby and the old dinosaurs were exceptionally aggressive towards the draconic expansion, and actively resisting the Great Dragons' power as best as they could, no matter how ineffective they were. His long, plate-armored neck swept around looking for any hint of amassed enemy forces, but there wasn't even a paranoid glimmer of resistance anywhere in his long view.

Ultimate Brachiomon cautiously descended into the entrance of the winding labyrinth of canyons. His long neck helped him in this situation. He was able to raise his head up above the canyon walls he was able to see where he was going in the rock maze and he could see the tree, and he could see if anyone was coming. He curled his hulking, bulky body around the corners of the tight passages. His armored shoulders scraped against the rock walls. He navigated the passages and grunted, pulling himself free from the tight canyons and then finally he was standing in front of the Destiny Tree. It was rooted into the side of a canyon cliff and its roots had spread out across the floor of the box-canyon it lived in. The branches reached high into the sky. No one was there to stop him. Small hatches opened all over his metal covered body.

"Ultimate Blast!" roared the long-necked, metal covered dinosaur.

Ultimate Brachiomon's eyes narrowed as he watched his attacks pass through the tree, exploding into the canyon wall behind. The tree flickered as the attack flew through it. Ultimate Brachiomon took a step backward this didn't feel right. The canyon shifted, the walls widened, the cul-de-sac widened and the tree disappeared. A tiny, minute figure was buzzing at the top of the canyon wall. It was round, pink and furry with rapidly buzzing, feathered wings. It had a spear pointed at Ultimate Brachiomon.

"We got you, yep, yep," chirped the buzzy voice of the creature.

"What is this?" Ultimate Brachiomon growled as he glared at the creature.

"I believe it's called an ambush, numnuts," growled a second voice. The voice came from behind Ultimate Brachiomon. He turned his armored neck around and found a heavily armored dromaeosaurus with huge sickle-like, talons behind him. "You were completely fooled by the little guy's illusion!"

"You were part of that attack against my brothers!" roared Ultimate Brachiomon as he moved to swing his clattering body around.

"You have a chance," A third voice spoke, this one from the side of Ultimate Brachiomon, from the top of the canyon walls. A beige lion man walked forward. He wore tattered blue pants. His head was framed by a large golden mane of fur. His body was muscular and chiseled. He had his hands with their palms exposed, though he did have a machete sheathed on his hip. "You don't have to follow the Great Dragons; their hypnotic power doesn't affect you. Renounce them, and join our resistance."

"The Great Dragons are Gods," Ultimate Brachiomon roared. "Your 'resistance' only exists because they will it to! If they brought down upon you their full power, you would be destroyed, and yet you ask me to join you? I prefer life under the control of the dragons, rather than a meaningless death at the hands of the dragons!"

"Do not be hasty, the dragons can be defeated," The lion man replied outstretching his massive, clawed hand. "I know they can be defeated! You cannot give up your hope…"

"Leomon, the fool is enamored with his worms, he won't turn," the oafish dinosaur shouted. "I say we fillet him now!"

"Do not be impulsive, DinoRexmon," The pink digimon said with a much more mature tone. The pixie buzzed forward, "Ultimate Brachiomon, we wish not to fight you, only to speak with you."

"Piximon is correct," The lion nodded, "You could do something that could greatly help us! You could provide us with intelligence, you could become a spy. We need a digimon on the inside. We could put our forces into offense instead of continually reacting…"

"You have said your words," Ultimate Brachiomon chuffed, turning his head back to the pink digimon. "I will not be a party of this blasphemous espionage! You three are wanted by the Dragons dead or alive! You are considered enemies of the state! I will show the Great Dragons my worth as one of their virtuous soldiers…and kill you here and now…"

"Yeah, right…" DinoRexmon snorted as he clicked his talons on the rocks. "These claws have destroyed the dragons' emissaries in the past. They cut dramon like a hot knife through butter."

"Then the Great Dragons were right in sending me," Ultimate Brachiomon growled as he swung around. His body just barely had a low enough turning radius to clear the widened walls of the canyon. "Ultimate Blast!"

The gun ports on Ultimate Brachiomon's armor opened and the cannons underneath opened fire, pitting the canyon and all around with craters and divots as explosives lodged themselves into the rock. The green dinosaur was gone and Ultimate Brachiomon chuckled.

"Impotent against a servant of the gods…" the low rumble chortled from Ultimate Brachiomon's long throat. The other two were hardly a threat, an Ultimate and a puny Champion. The only threat was the Mega, DinoRexmon, and it seemed he was easily dispatched with. Ultimate Brachiomon turned his head to the bipedal lion, "Are you sure it is not you who would like to reconsider your alliances? Maybe you should…"

"Leomon warp digivolve to," The lion leapt forward and glowed with energy as it transmogrified. Its bipedal form shifted into a quadruped form and its beige fur coloration turned into orange and yellow striped fur and a huge orange and yellow mane. Leomon's canines extended downward into two, stout saber-like fangs. The steel colored claws smashed into the long neck of Ultimate Brachiomon and the giant metal covered beast roared in pain. "….SaberLeomon!"

Ultimate Brachiomon felt as if his neck were being torn apart. The saber-toothed lion repelled off of his armor plated neck and hopped back onto a ledge newly created by Ultimate Brachiomon's initial attack. Ultimate Brachiomon then heard the sound of clanking from behind. He painfully twisted his head around and saw DinoRexmon charging up his back, talons of the dinosaur sparking as they clattered on Ultimate Brachiomon's back.

"Pit Bomb!" Ultimate Brachiomon's head swung back around as pulsing pains ran up and down his neck.

The pixie was flying towards him, swinging his spear, with each spear swing a burst of energy was directed at him. The pulses were surprisingly painful, considering they were coming from a diminutive Ultimate like Piximon. More quick fire bursts smashed into Ultimate Brachiomon's face forcing him to close his eyes.

"This is your last chance," SaberLeomon growled. "Do not make us destroy you. It is a needless death!"

"No, Leomon, no more chances!" DinoRexmon snarled as his claws cut into the base of Ultimate Brachiomon's neck.

"Ogremon, don't!" The saber-toothed lion roared.

"Leomon, enough of your namby-pamby sympathy!" The dinosaur roared as it tensed the muscles of its feet and the large raptorial scythes twitched. "Splatter Hunting!"

A cutting pain ran horizontally across Ultimate Brachiomon's neck. It was strange; they always said that the brain could perceive the world for awhile after being severed from the body. Ultimate Brachiomon watched as the world toppled towards him. It was as if he was perched on some tall tree being chopped down and the world was racing up to greet him. His head struck the ground. He could see his clawed feet and then the shadows encroached from the edges of his vision and then darkness.

888

"Your project failed," the rumbling growl of Megidramon thundered around the council room.

"Failure? Heh, even in failure there is progress," Holydramon replied. The pink, Dachshund-bodied, goat-headed dragon replied as she curled her limber, serpentine body around the larger, red armored wyvern. "We now know what the resistance is thinking; we now know the capacity of the digimon leading the resistance…"

Megidramon growled, his large dagger-like teeth gleaming in the torchlight. The spike protuberances the surrounded his jaw quivered as the muscles under his skin tensed. The large nicotine stained wings opened revealing their tattered webbing.

"I shall go to the targeted Destiny Tree," Megidramon snarled rising up out of the coils of Holydramon. His heavy blade-armored arms tensed against the red armor attached to his flesh. "I shall take with me a force of my creation…and any resistance will be swept aside!"

"You're creation? Have you been using the Dark Digi-core!?" Holydramon looked up at the massive, viral dragon as he rose into the near limitless roof of the council room, to a number of access ports that surrounded the walls' upper echelons.

"Goddramon's creations are busy, as such it is imperative we have a standing force beyond the volunteers we've procured," Megidramon's reply was matter-of-fact and simple. His red scaled body twisted as his wings swept around and he disappeared into one of the huge corridors the access ports led into.

888

Daisuke yawned, stretching quietly as he listened to the boring speech Koushiro was making. It had been over a week since the last Destiny Tree had been destroyed. The meeting had started out interesting enough, Iori and Miyako gave everyone an update on how things were going in Kyoto, and as to their attempts to help there. Sora and Jyou reassured everyone that Professor Takenouchi and Shuu, Jyou's older brother and the professor's research assistant were unharmed. Most of Kyoto was still in damage control from what the news and government was calling a 'meteor explosion in the lower troposphere'. Most of the damage had been in broken windows, though some fires had started and trees had fallen, but little structural damage had occurred, though some temples and buildings nearest to the explosion reported staggering structural damage, and there were still a few hundred without electricity. Most of the injuries were lacerations and injuries resulting in fallen trees and many had already gone home from emergency room care. More importantly, no other deaths had occurred than the initial two which had involved car accidents in response to the explosion. After the Kyoto update, Koushiro stood up and then proceeded to talk for what seemed like hours.

Currently Koushiro was talking about some strange energy reading coming from the destroyed tree, or some sort of power being removed or something. Daisuke wasn't really paying much attention. He wasn't overly interested in power transfers, multi-phasic input transduction in a data hyper-linking context, or even really why the heck this was at all important.

He noticed that Taichi was evidently of the same mind, because the teenager was leaning back in a computer chair, his head lolling back over the edge of the back, eyes wandering around the room, and his lips slowly mouthing 'Oh my God, shut up already'. Actually everyone but Ken, Iori and Miyako were in a similar state. Hikari was doodling on a notebook. Though she'd dismiss the idea, Daisuke had often found her doodling in class and wasn't surprised to see her doing so here. Takeru was fidgeting with his hat, flipping the floppy rim of it up and down and turning the bucket-hat inside out and then inside in again. Jyou was filling out some sort of form; Daisuke surmised it was some sort of application from the uncomfortable way Jyou was chewing on the end of his pen. Yamato was asleep, snoring ever so quietly next to Sora. The girl was grimacing at the blonde, poking him with her index finger every once and awhile, forcing the young man to jump awake with a start.

Daisuke shook his head. None of this was odd; he'd attended enough 'digi-destined meetings' to know that these in depth lectures on the Digital World's fundamental makeup were more boring than dirt. The strange thing was that Koushiro seemed totally oblivious to the fact that his audience was bored out of their minds by his lectures. Of course, it didn't help that the computer room's lights were off and the low hum of the computers put out enough white noise to knock out a man with caffeine intravenously dripping into his bloodstream.

The digimon had long forgotten about Koushiro, and were all either sleeping, like Salamon and Patamon, bouncing about and snacking on the bag of treats provided by Miyako, like DemiVeemon, Upamon and Poromon, or huddled around each other talking, like Koromon, Tsunomon, Yokomon and Bukamon. Wormmon and Motimon were playing checkers on the floor under the tables.

"So, in conclusion, the readings I have been gathering suggest that there is something siphoning power away from the destroyed Destiny Trees," Koushiro said as he clicked a slide controller. "I suspect the Dragons are attempting to gather enough power to make a brute force strike at the barrier between this world and the Digital World."

Daisuke instantly jumped up, "I thought we were supposed to be going to one of the Destiny Trees to protect it from being destroyed!? If not then why go through the science class?"

"We are going," Koushiro said with a bit of an exasperated, frustrated sigh. "If you had been listening, I said we were going! A group of our allies around the area of the Destiny Tree, that I believe is the most likely to be attacked, are already in position. We're going to go there in case things get wooly."

"How do we know that this particular tree is going to be attacked?" Takeru said as he fitted his hat on his head.

"Again, if you had listened," Koushiro sighed again. He placed his hands heavily on the table in front of him and grumbled slightly, "Ogremon, Piximon and Leomon intercepted an attacker to this particular tree, since the Dragons have only been destroying one tree a week. I've been tracking the dragons' movements ever since they have been freed; cataloguing every battle. The Dragons never have been repelled, without them exacting a devastating counterstrike. Their pride seems to push them to continue attacking the same places until they overwhelm their enemy…the dragons are fighting a war of attrition of the worst kind."

"It's a similar tactic the Russians used in World War 2 against the Nazis' advance," Ken said with a grimace. "They are working with the theory that their greater numbers will eventually overwhelm any enemy no matter how high their casualties get."

"This combined with our current information about the energy transfers, means that we have to work doubly hard to protect the Destiny Trees." Iori grumbled looking out the window. "Can you imagine what it would be like if the Great Dragons broke into our world? All those people out there would be in danger."

"It won't be a bunch of lost digimon innocently afraid of their surroundings, or a glancing blow from an interdimensional shot across the bow," Miyako gulped and looked down at the black table top in front of her, "and it won't be a surgical strike from a handful of malicious digimon like the Daemon Corps. It'll be armies of powerful, evil digimon marching on the streets of Tokyo, and not just Tokyo, but also on the streets of New York, Paris, New Delhi…everywhere."

"Then." Taichi whipped himself forward onto his feet, as if he'd just come out of some daydream. "Let's get out there and kick some dragon tail."

"Yeah, because we've been so successful at it so far," Yamato yawned as he stood up.

"Well, it's not like we've been doing badly either," Daisuke said sharply. Usually he didn't speak up against the older kids, but Yamato was often so pessimistic about things now.

"How many trees have we kept from being destroyed? How many cities have we kept from being destroyed? How many clean cut victories have we had?" Yamato asked as he walked past Daisuke up to Koushiro, who was preparing his laptop to create a digi-port.

"Um, well, there…um…" Daisuke frowned and narrowed his eyes, "Ok, fine, we could've been doing better but we could've been doing even worse! I mean we did keep the dragons from getting their hands on Gennai, which has to count for something."

"It does, but there is a lot else we've not been able to do." Yamato said as he watched Koushiro work. ""And even if we do somehow stop them this time, what's stopping them from coming back and doing it when we're gone?"

"The Digi-port's ready," Koushiro said, turning slowly to everyone. He looked to Yamato and frowned slightly. Then he looked to everyone else, the frown disappearing quickly. "Mimi said she'd meet us on the other side. You know, this crisis has really let us reunite in a way we haven't been able to before. I mean everyone's digimon can digivolve to the Ultimate level or higher and everyone's taking part! It's kind of historical…"

"It's the kind of history, that I had hoped never would have had to happen," Takeru said as he walked up to Koushiro's laptop with Patamon flapping along behind him. The blonde haired boy with the bucket hat lifted his D-3, "Digi-port Open!"

888

"Heh, the fools think they can stop us with those feeble excuses for digimon?" Megidramon chuckled quietly as he looked at the screen that a Monodramon was showing him. The screen showed hundreds of tyrannosaurs and a collection of other dinosaurs standing around a huge Mesquite tree. "We shall sweep the Tyranomon aside! Isn't that right, my children?"

Megidramon turned his head. An army of red and black striped dragons stood up straight and saluted with their clawed hands to their foreheads. Golden eyes glowed bright red. Eyebrow horns lifted as the dragons lifted their snouts.

These simple bipedal dragons weren't alone. Beyond them were larger bulkier digimon dragons. Their chests and arms were enclosed by heavy armor with biohazard and radiation symbols displayed on the chest armor. Their arms were metal, with heave blades on the forearms. A pair of rocket-like prongs sprouted from the dragons' shoulders. They roared, lowering their metallic chins in a loud shout.

"That's right, Growlmon, WarGrowlmon, give a loud battle cheer," Megidramon growled as he rose into the air.

Megidramon was now calling to a more vast force of even more dragons. Most of them were Strikedramon, the lithe kickboxing dragons known for the deadly claws and fangs. Others were the stout Veedramon, with their bulky lower body, strong upper body and with phenomenal power in their breath. Amongst those dragons were cybernetic bests with huge metal wings spreading out from their blue metallic body with long, yellow necks and sweeping metal tails, they were the Raptordramon. Megidramon chuckled quietly as he looked down upon the black armored digimon directly below him. They had four legs, and a lightning horned snout with lightning bolt shaped spikes rising from their shoulders.

"All forces are ready for forward march," announced a black, muscular dragon riding the air on two pairs of crimson wings. The black dragon looked up at Megidramon and snarled, its featureless masked face was cold. The spikes on its outer arms glimmered in the afternoon sunlight. "My Devidramon are ready for the aerial first strike…"

"Good, Cyberdramon," Megidramon looked up and saw the large, black dragons gliding on tattered wings. The Devidramon's four red eyes glowed as they looked down and their bloody-red claws curled in anticipation. "You have my permission to smash into their lines. I know you've been training your Devidramon very hard, they may be all we need…after the Tyranomon are cleared aside I will move in to destroy the tree. Until then, Cyberdramon, you are commanding officer of this aggression."

"I will win this battle," Cyberdramon nodded sharply.

"Oh don't give them the glorification of calling it a battle," Megidramon tsked sharply, "It's simply an act of aggression, nothing more. After all, this isn't even a war…It is only pest control…"

"I apologize, my lord," Cyberdramon said nodding sharply and then took off on his crimson wings. He glided around and faced the wheeling kettles of Devidramon. "Ok, you scumbags! Forward dive, aim for the face, the chest and the eyes! Short dive-bombing runs with focus on using your claws, make few enduring strikes, this is a hit and run mission, we burn and then ride into the air! Let the ground dragons finish these miserable excuses for digimon off!" Cyberdramon then dove down to where the land dragons were, "You will wait ten minutes and then start forward march, you will not open fire until the Devidramon are out of the way, hand to hand and fang attacks are fine, but no special attacks until the aerials are clear!" The land dragons roared and stomped in acknowledgement. Cyberdramon nodded and then flew back up to the Devidramon. "You devil dragons!" Cyberdramon lifted his left hand and clenched the heavy, metallic claws into a fist, "FORWARD…" Cyberdramon's arm twitched slightly in excitement. "DIVE!"

Cyberdramon swung his arm down and suddenly hundreds of Devidramon dove past him. They were like a river of locusts as they curled down into the canyon system that moved veined around the Destiny Tree.

888

Mimi screamed as huge, leathery tyrannosaur feet started to stumble and stomp. The attack had come from the air. The howls of the tyrannosaurs shook the air. As black dragons dove in and out of the army of dinosaurs slicing their crimson claws across the dinosaurs' faces and eyes.

Palmon grabbed Mimi, yanking her away from a falling set of clawed feet. The green, plant digimon ran, dragging the tawny haired girl behind her like a rag doll. Her root like feet gripped the sandy earth easily, making it easy for her to run.

"You have to digivolve," Mimi shouted as a Dark Tyranomon crashed to the earth rubbing its cut up eyes.

"You're safety first, Mimi," the plant shouted as she extended one of her wide, vein-y arms. "Poison Ivy!"

Four vine whips flew upward and curled around the lower branches of a huge Mesquite tree that the Tyranomon had been protecting. The next thing Mimi knew, she was being yanked into the air as her partner reeled herself up onto the tree branch. Mimi climbed up on the gargantuan branch and looked down.

The red Tyranomon and the black skinned, green striped Dark Tyranomon were scrambling away from the diving black dragons, putting their hands over their heads in a feeble attempt to escape the long black claws the devilish dragons were brandishing.

Behind the first line a number of gray skinned Master Tyranomon were moving forward, putting their hands on their injured comrades. A yellow glow would emanate from their clawed hands and the fallen dinosaurs' wounds would clear away. Another group of gray fleshed Tyranomon, these with mechanical enhancements on their claws, chests and chins lifted their left claws. Red lasers fired into the flocks of devil dragons, dispersing the black clouds of leather dragon flesh with sweeping strikes of red.

"This is just the first wave," Palmon looked up. The box canyon the Destiny Tree grew from had only one entrance that led upwards towards a ridge. It was there that Palmon saw the lines of Veedramon and Strikedramon lining up. "The others better get here soon, I don't know how long the Metal Tyranomon can keep the Devidramon away…"

"You better help them," Mimi said pulling her D-3 up. Its green skin glowed.

"Palmon digivolve to…" The flowered plant digimon leapt from the branch of the Destiny Tree and was bathed in light. She grew bigger and turned into a giant, walking cactus. A pair of red boxing gloves fitted onto the cactus's hands. "…Togemon!" The tassel of brown fuzz on the top of the cactus suddenly bloomed and a pink light flew out of the flower. The cactus's body dispersed into data and flew into the ball of light, "Togemon digivolve to…" A small, human-sized flower fairy buzzed forward on leafy wings, "Lillymon!"

Barrages of green bolts exploded into the air. The Devidramon tried to swipe at the fairy, but she was too fast, and too nimble to be struck down by the larger, devilish brutes. Lillymon swung around a group of the dragons and let loose a liana and then buzzed around the Devidramon group's periphery. After several passes, Lillymon yanked on the end of the liana binding the Devidramon together.

"Yes!" Mimi smiled as the devil dragons tumbled towards the ground. Mimi's eyes widened though. A single dragon was diving down from behind Lillymon. It was like the others. It was smaller, but much more muscular and had crimson wings. "Lillymon! Behind you!"

The fairy turned as the muscular dragon slammed his clawed hands onto Lillymon's shoulders driving the wood nymph towards the earth. Lillymon was no shrinking flower though, and she kneed the dragon in its chiseled stomach. The dragon released her and fanned his crimson wings open flying upwards as the fairy extended her right hand and a flower bud bloomed around her wrist.

"Flower Cannon!" shouted Lillymon as a green burst of natural energy was fired at the dragon.

The dragon sliced his clawed hands through the air dragging emerald energy out of the air. A blast of black-emerald energy fired forward smashing through Lillymon's attack. The fairy thankfully dove out of the way of the blast.

The red winged dragon's attack seemed to have been a cue though, because all the Veedramon and Strikedramon started charging down into the valley. Also with the Veedramon and Strikedramon, Mimi could make out the four-legged black armored dragons that she knew very well as Raidramon. However a second line formed on the ridge. They were tall, like Greymon, but these weren't dinosaurs, in fact they looked a bit like something that would've been created if Megidramon mixed himself with a Greymon. Behind the new dragons were more strange dragons. These looked like the first, but had replaced several key parts, like arms, chest, with heavy gray armor. Two metallic spikes that arose from their shoulders flashed as rockets fired, lifting the massive metal dragons off of the ground and thrust them forward.

"Desolation Claw!" Roared a loud voice.

Mimi looked up quickly. Lillymon had evidently retreated from her position and her attacker had chased her. The black dragon's claws glowed as blackish-green energy ripped forward whizzing past Lillymon's flowery head. The dragon had a metal plate covering its face, making it hard to read any sort of emotion from its face.

The valley was in an uproar, as Tyranomon, Dark Tyranomon, lavender skinned Greymon, Three-headed Deltamon and green skinned, horn wielding Tuskmon engaged the Veedramon, Strikedramon and Raidramon. Blaze Bursts and V-Breath Arrows flew in all directions. Horns smashed against the claws and fangs. Energy bolts firing from the hand heads of the Deltamon twisting against the streams of lightning fired from the armor of Raidramon. The Master Tyranomon and the Metal Tyranomon were still dealing with the diving Devidramon.

The tree branch shook and Mimi looked in the direction of the tremor. Lillymon was plastered against the bark of the tree. The red winged dragon was bearing down on her. Mimi ran towards the fairy, still not sure what she was going to do, but sure she had to do something. The sun glistened on the dragon's claws as it raised them to bring down a final slashing attack upon the fairy.

"Lillymon! NO!" Mimi shouted loudly.

"Double Star!" a pair of crimson energy shurikens buzzed out of the tree.

The red winged dragon fell backward as the buzz saws sliced the air in front of him. Mimi looked up and saw a blur of white and brick-red. The next thing she saw was Paildramon diving through a cloud of Devidramon, his hip cannons opening fire upon the demonic beasts. The rumble of jets announced the arrival of MegaKabuterimon. The giant, red beetle fired a strafing bolt of lightning into the lines of ground dragons. The scarab hovered over Mimi's head and then lowered down. The next thing Mimi knew the rest of the digi-destined were surrounding her.

"The cavalry is here!" Taichi announced as he dropped down onto the tree branch.

"Dude, that's not cool!" shouted Daisuke as he pointed down to the Raidramon. "Come on, don't the Great Dragons have any imagination!?"

"You know what they say, Daisuke," Hikari gave the flame jacketed boy a sidelong smile, "'Imitation is the greatest form of flattery'."

"Well, the Great Dragons can keep their complements to themselves," Daisuke grumbled.

There was a loud whoosh, and a huge, orange and purple striped dinosaur with a metal chest and a left, metallic arm flew overhead on thin, purple wings. Mimi smiled upon the sight of Metal Greymon. On the metal dinosaur's snout was WereGarurumon, a werewolf that wore a pair of torn jeans.

Garudamon flew past and dropped Zudomon into a clump of Veedramon. The huge, walrus-turtle slammed his heavy, chrome-digizoid hammer down smashing several of the blue dragons with one swipe. Garudamon dove through the remaining Devidramon. The giant eagle-man sliced her claws through the air releasing claw shaped streaks of flame. Arrows of light rained down upon the dragons from the female angel, Angewomon. A male angel, MagnaAngemon, was diving into the fray slicing through dragons with a glowing, lavender blade. Shakkoumon was turning its clay head back and forth firing bolts of red energy into the attackers' line. DinoBeemon whirred past and vibrated into a pink stream of light that sliced through the ranks of the dragons.

WereGarurumon leapt off of Metal Greymon's snout and fell into a group of Strikedramon. The Strikedramon jumped onto the blue werewolf. A few seconds later the lavender skinned kick-boxing dragons were sent flying in all directions by a sweeping, full moon kick executed by the werewolf. The wolf then leapt into the air and slashed his claws forward releasing a red and yellow cross of energy that tore into the lavender, bipedal dragons.

A group of yellow skinned dragons, Mimi hadn't noticed before rocketed forward on large, metallic wings that spread out from a blue chassis. Mimi heard Izzy announce them as Raptordramon. They fired blasts of lightning from their mouths, aiming them at Metal Greymon. The larger, metal dinosaur charged through the electrical attacks and thrust his metallic arm forward, letting his long claws smash into the lighter armor of the Raptordramon.

Lillymon got back to her feet and buzzed after the red winged dragon that had attacked her earlier. The dragon was fighting with Silphymon. The white-chested, red legged bird-man cyborg was slamming his eagle-like feet into the muscular dragon. Izzy said that the red winged dragon was named Cyberdramon. Lillymon fired her Flower Cannon at Cyberdramon. The dragon was pushed backward by the green burst, but it seemed to anger him more than anything. Silphymon dove into the dragon, shoulder-blocking Cyberdramon.

It was looking like they may actually win. The Tyranomon and their dinosaur friends were smashing through the Veedramon. The destined digimon were beating back the Raidramon, Strikedramon, Raptordramon and Devidramon. They were winning. Mimi turned to Taichi and Daisuke. They were thrusting fists into invisible enemies cheering as their partners cut through the army of evil dragon digimon.

Mimi felt oddly satisfied. She wasn't a violent girl by instinct but she was fully aware that what the Great Dragons were doing was cruel and wrong and something that needed to be fought. She watched as Lillymon wrapped Cyberdramon in a flower wreath. Silphymon slammed a Tempest Wing into the black dragon flinging the muscular beast over the ridge of the canyon and out of sight. She was about to let out a loud cheer but that's when the metal monsters on far end of the canyon, lined up on the ridge, lifted off of the ground. Massive jets firing from the metallic shoulder spikes. The much more organic monsters that the metal beasts seemed derived from roared loudly and started down the ridge charging towards the digi-destined.

888

Metal Greymon slammed his metal claw into a group of Raptordramon. The blue and yellow cybernetic dragons leapt backward in shock from the sudden attack. Most of the dragon forces were now being engulfed by the Tyranomon and their allies. The battle was almost over, or so Metal Greymon thought.

Suddenly, a blast smashed into Metal Greymon's breastplate. It was a stream of red hot energy. The orange and lavender, metal enhanced dinosaur staggered and fell backward. The next thing Metal Greymon knew a heavy blade smashed against his upper jaw, fortunately the metallic portions of his upper snout were in place, because the blade left a gash in the metal. Metal Greymon swung his metal arm up and his claws clanked against his aggressor. Metal Greymon looked up and saw a gray, metallic torso, emblazoned with a symbol all digimon feared, the hazard symbol. Metal Greymon pushed upward throwing his attacker off of him.

The dragon was nearly the same size as Metal Greymon. The digimon had red skin, with black stripes, in fact the flesh looked like Megidramon's. Its arms were cybernetic and each sported a huge axe-like blade. The shoulders had two small energy cannons mounted on them.

The digimon lifted its head and roared. It shook its white mane and then lunged forward again. Metal Greymon swept his metal arm up as the dragon's arm-blade crashed down. Metal Greymon's eyes widened as he heard a resounding crack come from his arm. The dinosaur's chrome digi-zoid armor had been damaged. Metal Greymon punched upward smashing his flesh and blood fist into the dragon's metallic chin. The cybernetic dinosaur digimon swept around, smashing his heavy orange and purple tail into the dragon's side. Metal Greymon then spread his thin, purple wings and rose off of the ground to survey the area. WereGarurumon was being overwhelmed by digimon similar to Metal Greymon's attacker, though these didn't have the metal bodies.

The Tyranomon were being sliced through by the newcomers. Any attack that landed on the heavier, metal bodied digimon bounced off, even the Metal Tyranomon were being beaten back. The dragons sliced into the flesh of the Metal Tyranomon, which was far more common than the metallic portions. Paildramon was locked in combat with one, his piles blocking the blades that were weighed down on him by one of the airborne, metal dragons. MagnaAngemon and Angewomon were retreating back from the attackers because they were being blocked in by their long range attacks.

Lillymon and Silphymon were making quick, hit and run attacks across the newcomers' line but rarely did anything but annoy the attackers. Garudamon and MegaKabuterimon, with their added size engaged the metal dragons one on one. Zudomon was slamming his hammer down on groups of the red and black, scaled dragons.

Metal Greymon swirled around. He heard Shakkoumon's voice shout out. The clay digimon was being overwhelmed by the hazard sign wearing dragons. DinoBeemon was buzzing towards him but the giant, draconic bug was suddenly distracted by the combined attack of leftover Devidramon. Metal Greymon turned and flew towards Shakkoumon. This battle was turning quickly for the worse.

888

"What are those things?" Miyako shouted in Koushiro's ear.

"I don't know, the digimon analyzer isn't working," Koushiro grumbled as realigned his D-3 to the input port of his D-terminal. The screen blinked with the words, "No entry found…"

"They're kicking our butts!" Daisuke growled. Koushiro could just about imagine the boy's stance, slightly hunched over, clenched fists with bunched up eyebrows and a frown.

"We need to know what they are, their level," Yamato said.

Koushiro frowned at the tone of the blonde's voice, acting like he was some sort of wizard that could whip an answer up with a flick of his hand. They didn't understand the situation at all.

"Izzy, anytime now…" Tai's voice rang out.

"I'm working on it!" Koushiro snapped. He wasn't usually quick to anger but this situation was inherently frustrating and their insistence wasn't helping. He tried to re-input the data from his D-3. He figured it was pointless but he best look as if he's doing something. The screen suddenly flashed up with an image. "Oh!" Koushiro yipped with a bit of a shock that it worked. He read the profile and frowned, "The ones without the metal, are called Growlmon…they are Champion level, dragon digimon whose attacks are Pyro Blaster and Dragon Slasher. The metal ones are called WarGrowlmon, they are Ultimate level, their attacks are Radiation Blade and Atomic Blaster….and there is more. These guys are labeled as the children of Megidramon, their digital DNA comes straight from Megidramon; evidently they are his elite class soldiers."

"Megidramon!?" Miyako gulped as she looked down. "Do you think that means?"

"We've yet to see a Mega digimon," Koushiro grumbled looking upwards. "It may not matter. These guys are more powerful than they look…"

"Not for long," Taichi lifted his D-3. "Metal Greymon, come back, and get ready to Warp Digivolve."

Yamato followed Taichi's action and called WereGarurumon. The werewolf exploded from a dog-pile of Growlmon and deftly landed on Metal Greymon's snout. Koushiro's smiled slightly as he watched the two approach, because the sight reminded him of their victory against Venom Myotismon.

Metal Greymon flew past the children and hovered over the branch they were on. The dinosaur then glowed and reverted to Agumon. The werewolf followed suit, turning into the blue lupine reptile, Gabumon. Yamato and Taichi lifted their D-3s.

"Let's get back into this thing!" Taichi shouted.

"We're not afraid of Megidramon or his children," Agumon said curling his clawed hands into fists.

Yamato nodded sharply as he looked at Gabumon, "You with me on this buddy? We can clear these guys out for sure."

"I'll follow you anywhere, Yamato," Gabumon said, nodding sternly.

The two digivices flared to life.

"Agumon..." The little, orange tyrannosaur burst with energy, leaping from the tree.

"Gabumon…." The pelt, shawled digimon leapt from the tree branch.

"Warp Digivolve to…." The two digimon were now nothing more than pearls of light, one orange the other blue.

The orange light turned into a dragon warrior with golden armor. Gauntlets with metal claws fell over the warrior's arms as shields flashed onto its back that bared the symbol of the Crest of Courage.

The blue light turned into a gold and gray, metal wolf. Golden airfoils sliced out from its back and opened up its jets. A blade-like tail sliced up from behind the wolf as it dove downward.

"…WarGreymon!" roared the dragon warrior as he sliced through a group of WarGrowlmon. The metal dragons dispersed into packets of data as WarGreymon sliced through them with the blade-claws on his gauntlets.

"….Metal Garurumon!" howled the wolf as it strafed a clump of Growlmon with the lasers mounted in its snout.

"Call for a retreat," shouted Taichi loudly. "Get all the friendly digimon out of the way…"

"What? Why?" Daisuke spun around looking at his mentor.

Koushiro sighed and decided he better deal with it, "WarGreymon and Metal Garurumon are going to sweep the field; you don't want Paildramon getting in the way of that, do you?"

"Oh…yeah," Daisuke laughed, embarrassedly as he grabbed up his D-3.

The others were quick to call their digimon out of the way. Koushiro had told them to warn the Tyranomon as well and soon enough the giant dinosaur digimon were running from the battle field.

Soon the entire battlefield was inhabited by just WarGrowlmon and Growlmon. The Tyranomon retreat wasn't difficult because the attackers hadn't yet had the chance to circle around them to hold them back.

WarGreymon and Metal Garurumon hung in the air above the Growlmon and WarGrowlmon. The dragon digimon looked up at the two Mega digimon above them.

"Atomic Blaster!" roared the metal digimon. The shoulder mounted energy cannons sprung to life firing hundreds of bolts of energy up at WarGreymon and Metal Garurumon.

"Pyro Blaster!" roared the Growlmon. A tidal wave of flames washed upward.

"RAAAH!" WarGreymon swept out of the flames sweeping one of his shields against the flames.

Metal Garurumon charged past WarGreymon and all the gun-ports on the wolf's metal body opened up, "Metal Wolf Claw!"

Lasers and missiles rained down on the Growlmon and WarGrowlmon. Metal Garurumon dropped back as WarGreymon closed his clawed gauntlets together drawing energy out of the air. He pulled his arms apart creating a giant, orange ball of energy.

"TERRA FORCE!" WarGreymon lobbed the ball downward in the wake of Metal Garurumon's attack.

The valley below flared with fire and ice as the two attacks erupted across the ground, engulfing the dragon digimon below. The smoke rolled past and only the two Mega digimon stood the dragons had either been frozen and then melted or burned completely through.

Koushiro looked over to the others. They were cheering and thrusting fists into the air. Their partners were also pleased, even the Tyranomon, who had hid behind the Destiny Tree, were cheering from the victory. Koushiro felt a chill though.

888

"Lord Megidramon! Lord Megidramon!" a lavender dragon flapped towards the massive, red wyvern.

He landed on the rocky ground and sprinted the rest of the way to the massive monster. He shivered as he looked up at the red and black dragon that filled the sky. The large bony breastplate that covered Megidramon's chest was emblazoned with the hazard symbol. Megidramon looked down at the lavender dragon with angry, red eyes.

"What is it, Monodramon?" the voice of the dragon rumbled ominously, like a distant thunder storm. Megidramon's nicotine yellow wings even blocked the sun, and Monodramon shivered even more in the shadow of the wyvern.

"It's…It's the attack force…" Monodramon gulped worriedly. "The digi-destined appeared and their Mega Digimon destroyed the WarGrowlmon and Growlmon."

Megidramon clenched one of his clawed hands and raised his red armored arm. Monodramon fell to the ground huddling in fear. Megidramon snarled angrily and then dove downward. Monodramon screamed as the wyvern's massive body swept elegantly inches from his lavender skin. The wake of wind created by Megidramon threw Monodramon into the air, and the little purple dragon got smacked in the back of the head by Megidramon's ivory, arrowhead-shaped tail.

888

Agent Pierson sat down across the interrogation table from the young man in front of him. The lad was fourteen or fifteen, with wiry muscles and longish brown hair. The boy's arms were crossed in front of him and he was looking at the ceiling.

Agent Pierson whistled as he looked through the folder. "Amazing track record for a kid your age. Fighting in and out of school, numerous assault charges filed against you that were ultimately dismissed due to age…and your father, and now this…you burned down a store…"

"I told you I didn't burn nothing down." The boy said sharply, his olive eyes flashed at Agent Pierson. "Why aren't you talking to the other kid, he was the one stealing? I should be a hero, I stopped him!"

"You put him in the hospital with a concussion from punching him so hard and you started a building on fire." Agent Pierson said quietly, steepling his hands on top of the folder. "Nobody's going to remember that I-pod that was stolen…everyone's going to remember the fireball…" Agent Pierson looked at the indignant boy on the other side of the table and leaned back. "Mr. Damon, this isn't going away this time. You used a huge monster in battle in the middle of Boston…you didn't think no one was going to notice? A giant spikey-headed dinosaur breathing fireballs…you don't think that'd have caught someone's attention?"

"I don't know what you're talking about? A giant monster? A spiky dinosaur breathing fireballs? I don't know what they are putting in your coffee but I think I may like some." The boy said glaring at Agent Pierson.

"Don't play dumb." Agent Pierson said. "You may have guessed I'm not the normal five-O. I'm from an agency in the federal government that is tasked specifically with investigating cases like this one, dealing with those monsters. I am not your enemy here, Mr. Damon. I saw the reports. I saw your affidavit. I saw the reports of the second monster helping the kid that was shoplifting." Agent Pierson pulled is sunglasses down onto the bridge of his nose, his brown eyes flitted over them and stared at the teenager across the table. "You're right, you are a hero, but you're still rough, and you caused more damage than was necessary, you were lucky no one was killed in your stunt." Agent Pierson pushed his sunglasses back up, eclipsing his eyes. "My agency is putting together a…oh I suppose it's a team, maybe a taskforce…a gang if you will. We're trying to better understand the relationship between these monsters and you kids. Hopefully train some of you to better handle your monsters' powers."

"Train?" the teen looked up at Agent Pierson.

"Yeah, so when the next crisis comes, we can deploy you to stop it from becoming a disaster." Agent Pierson said, sitting back in his chair. "Specifically to keep the likes of you from making it worse." Agent Pierson opened his file folder and pulled out a piece of paper and slid it over to the teen. "My boss is already talking to your parents, and I am authorized to tell you this right now. You are looking at some hefty charges, the assault and battery alone will see you put behind bars, the property damage will leave your family and you liable for tens of thousands of dollars if not much more…and no, your father Councilman Spencer Damon cannot stop it." Agent Pierson sat back. "I however, can, Marcus. Join us, and this whole episode goes away. The assault…the fire…" Agent Pierson snapped his fingers, "gone, poof…you scratch my back, I scratch yours."

"Bribing me, eh?" the teen grumbled. "Threatening me? Disgusting actions for a man…"

"Don't think about it as me bribing and threatening you." Agent Pierson said, calmly. "Think of it as you protecting your family…protecting the country…maybe even saving the world. Doesn't that fit in your rules for life? Wouldn't that make you a man?"

"What about Agumon?" the teen asked as he looked at the form in front of him.

"Currently contained, but you would be reunited with him soon, if you sign the document, of course." Agent Pierson said quietly.

"I suspect then I don't have a choice." The boy said, ruefully.

The teenager narrowed his eyes, pursed his lips, and then finally lifted his hand and picked up the pen, and in sweeping motions signed the piece of paper. Agent Pierson smiled, gently took the form from the boy and then outstretched his hand. The boy reached out and clasped it and the two shook.

"Allow me to congratulate you on making a very mature choice, Marcus Damon." Agent Pierson said, shaking the lad's hand. "You will be a great service to your country and your world."

888

Jyou watched as everyone cheered. Even he had a feeling of happy butterflies fluttering in his stomach. This would be the first time they'd actually won a fight against the dragons yet. He looked around and his eyes fell on Koushiro. The red head was the only one not basking in the glow of victory.

"Is there something wrong, Koushiro?" Jyou asked as he walked up to the young man. The boy looked up with a frown on his face.

"It's odd, there wasn't a Mega digimon this time," Koushiro replied as he put his D-Terminal into the pocket of his green jacket. "This is an aberration in the Dramon's tactics. An aberration that doesn't make logical sense…even considering the use of the WarGrowlmon this doesn't make sense."

"So what are you saying?" Jyou gulped, fearing the cinnamon haired boy's answer.

"I think we're celebrating too early," Koushiro stated firmly. The other children stopped and turned to the boy. "There is a Mega digimon here somewhere, hiding or waiting to attack."

Jyou frowned as his stomach tied itself into a knot. He knew he'd hate the answer. One of the girls gasped loudly and another made a sharp eeping noise. Jyou instantly looked up. The eastern skies were blackening. Jyou knew that this couldn't be good. He gulped as another knot formed in his gullet.

There was a thunderous roar. Jyou's blood ran cold. He'd heard that roar before. He slowly turned his head to the others. They were also agape looking at the tumultuous skies. Jyou looked back to the sky. The black clouds parted and down came the head of Megidramon. Its knobbed and horny visage reminded Jyou of the pictures of monsters from old art canvases. The dragon's red armored skin looked as if it was painted with blood. Megidramon opened its mouth and revealed the hundreds and hundreds of long, dagger-like teeth dripping with streams of saliva. The dragon continued to descend, revealing its snake like body and its sharply bladed, arms. Huge, tattered wings held the dragon in the air as it long tail coiled and curled behind him ending in the huge bony tip.

WarGreymon and Metal Garurumon were right under the dragon. Megidramon extended its hands and curled its clawed fingers into a grasping motion.

"You! You dare to resist me! You dare to destroy my progeny!" Megidramon roared loudly.

"This…this…this is bad," Jyou gulped as he looked at the massive beast that just hung in the air like some leaden blimp.

"You shall be eliminated!" roared Megidramon. "My patience for you gnats is over! You will be swatted here and now!"

The dragon made a sweeping motion with his hand. WarGreymon and Metal Garurumon quickly and deftly evade the brute force strike and quickly beat a retreat. Megidramon roared angrily and took pursuit.

"Guys," MegaKabuterimon rose up from underneath the tree. "It might be wise to take you somewhere safer, at least somewhere out of the crossfire."

"Megidramon will likely try to attack the tree," Koushiro nodded. "It will be dangerous here."

"Ok, take us to that ridge over there," Taichi pointed to a butte a few kilometers away.

"Right," MegaKabuterimon replied. "All aboard!"

"What about the rest of our partners?" Miyako asked as she looked off in the direction that Megidramon had flown.

"We're helping WarGreymon and Metal Garurumon out," Daisuke said sharply with a clenched fist. "No more running away! We may not be on the same level as Megidramon but with all of us we should at least prove to be a distraction!"

"To put them at risk just to be cannon fodder?" Miyako gulped.

"No, to be a distraction, hit and run to keep Megidramon off balance," Daisuke announced as he hopped on MegaKabuterimon's back. He extended his hand and helped Hikari across.

"Even so," Hikari said looking at Daisuke, "It could be dangerous, Megidramon is more powerful than most of the digimon we've ever faced before. We shouldn't underestimate him."

"I'm up for it." MegaKabuterimon said as the other kids got on his back. "We'll have to face them eventually, may as well go now!"

"Look," Iori called out pointing down towards the ground. The Tyranomon army was marching after Megidramon.

"If they are willing to go against Megidramon," Jyou took a deep breath, he didn't like the idea that was winning out in his head, "then we have to back them up…if the digi-destined won't fight alongside their digimon allies then there is no reason to have digi-destined."

The other children nodded and with a single gesture grasped their D-3s to give their message.

888

"This is impossible…" WarGreymon growled as he hovered in the air, searching the sky for Megidramon. "How could something that big, disappear like that!?"

"Keep your eyes open, WarGreymon," Metal Garurumon said as he flew past. "One direct hit is all he needs…"

"I know," WarGreymon grumbled as he glared into the sky. He remembered the flames that Goddramon had used on him. If Megidramon was half as strong as Goddramon then WarGreymon knew he had to be careful.

"You pathetic ants…" rumbled the voice of Megidramon from the black sky. "You dare think you can defeat me. You are no better than the jesters of my court!"

Suddenly Megidramon roared from the clouds, its mouth wide open. The dragon dove for WarGreymon. The golden armored warrior scrambled to get out of the way of the sharp teeth. The red dragon raced underneath his feet dragging the air along with it, pulling the slipstream dragging WarGreymon.

Metal Garurumon rushed the dragon and opened his mouth. A stream of arctic wind frosted the back of Megidramon. The red dragon twisted around and snarled with more annoyance than pain.

"Terra Force!" WarGreymon shouted as he drew up a massive orb of energy between his claws as he tumbled through the air. He then flung the ball into Megidramon's face. The dragon shook its head and snorted.

"You should give up," Megidramon snarled. He opened his mouth, "Megiddo Flame!"

A stream of blood red flames was tossed in WarGreymon's direction. WarGreymon threw himself out of the path of the flames, but their heat was enough to scorch portions of his skin attached to his armor.

"Even with a miss…" WarGreymon hissed as he grabbed his breastplate, the skin underneath felt like it had been boiled.

"Giga Missile!" Metal Garurumon howled as a giant canister was propelled from his chest. The metal wolf was flung backwards by the missile's departure.

"Hell's Howling!" Megidramon retorted as he took in a deep breath and blew forward.

A twisting, gray wind filled with grit and the husks of dead bugs howled through the air towards the missile. The wind hit the missile and before WarGreymon's eyes the missile corroded and aged, turning to rust and then falling apart in the twisting torrents of air. Megidramon chuckled as he rose into the air.

"What are you laughing for!?" shouted a voice from behind WarGreymon. The dragon warrior didn't have to turn to know that the voice belong to Paildramon. "You haven't won!"

"So the gnats have brought some midges with them?" Megidramon snorted as he cast a look upon WarGreymon.

WarGreymon turned back to where Paildramon's voice had come from. With the green and blue dragon were the other destined digimon, and WarGreymon could see a line of Tyranomon in the distance. The two angel digimon of the digi-destined moved forward.

"You laugh at us, Megidramon!" Angewomon spoke sternly. "You don't know what you're up against!"

Megidramon chuffed in amusement and spread open his arms making himself open to attack, "Then go ahead, angel, strike at me with all your combined power, I'll allow you one shot. I shall prove to you that you cannot lay a scratch upon my body."

"Your arrogance is only outmatched by your evilness!" Angewomon growled threw gritted teeth. She lifted one of her arms up. "Heaven's Charm!"

A pulse of energy flew into the air and formed into a ring of multicolored light.

"It's about time we made boots out of you Megidramon!" Shakkoumon drawled. The clay digimon narrowed his large, golden eyes, "Justice Beam!"

A pair of red lasers fired into the ring.

"Hell's Masquerade!" DinoBeemon shouted as the giant insect vibrated and then sent a pink shockwave into the circle.

"Static Force!" Silphymon swung his claws through the air and drew up the static energy in the air and then thrust it forward into the lights.

"My turn…" Paildramon growled as his hip cannons swung forward. The dragon clasped the cannons with his gauntleted hands. "Desperado Blaster!"

"This is brings back memories," Zudomon said as he lifted his hammer. "Vulcan's Hammer!"

The heavy sledge crashed down on the earth and sent forth a streak of energy into Angewomon's aurora ring.

"Wing Blade!" Garudamon flexed as a crimson phoenix screeched upward into the circle.

"Flower Cannon!" Lillymon buzzed her wings, as the flower bracelet bloomed into a large blossom cannon and fired a green pulse of energy.

"Wait for me!" MegaKabuterimon huffed as he jetted forward. "Horn Buster!"

The scarab's large horn flickered to life as orange electrical energy flew into the heavenly ring.

"My contribution…" MagnaAngemon spoke slowly. "Is the power…of the Gate of Destiny!" The muscular, wide-shouldered, male angel sliced a giant circle into the air the circle drifted upward and eclipsed Angewomon's. It turned into a giant gate and then dispersed into data filling the aurora ring.

"Megidramon, this is your last chance to surrender!" Angewomon said as she lifted her arm again. A white lightning bolt shot downward from the circle in the sky, turning into a white arrow.

"Surrender!? HA!" Megidramon chuckled quietly.

"Then live with your consequences," Angewomon returned as her free arm rose and a pair of wings flashed from her wrist making a bow for her arrow. "CELESTIAL ARROW!"

"Now!" shouted Metal Garurumon. The wolf's full arsenal opened up and released their payload. "Metal Wolf Claw!"

"Grand Tornado!" WarGreymon spun into an orange tornado of energy driving through Metal Garurumon's attack, twisting the icy weaponry into his fiery attack, all the while doggedly chasing after Angewomon's arrow.

The arrow exploded into Megidramon's chest. Its energy was released in all directions. WarGreymon then drove into the chest armor of the dragon, drilling his dramon-destroyers into the dragon's chest, directing Metal Garurumon's attack into the armor as well.

Suddenly the armor pulsed. A bright red flash filled the air and WarGreymon was sent tumbling backward. The warrior looked up after he regained his composure after being flung some hundred meters. It was the symbol in the middle of Megidramon's chest armor. The symbol was composed of a triangle in the middle of a circle with three other triangles on the periphery, each one of the outer triangles had a corner touching one of the inner triangle's points. Each of the four triangles had a bloody glow coming from them. Megidramon's eyes glowed with the same color and a horrible aura surrounded him.

"You silly, monkey-trained, fools!" Megidramon growled. The air shook, trembling from the sound of the voice. "You truly have no idea what it is you are up against!" The dragon's body seethed. His chest rose and fell his arms flexed and unflexed, his hands curled into fists and then opened up again. Megidramon suddenly slammed one of his fists on his chest armor. "This plate holds back the Digital Hazard, the greatest most dangerous power in the Digital World, and you dare to think you're paltry, impotent, little parlor tricks would come close to scratching its surface!?"

"Umm…yes?" Zudomon said; his grumbling voice cutting through the silence of the rhetorical question.

Megidramon roared loudly thrusting his hands upwards towards the sky. The cloud of energy that surrounded the massive, red wyvern was heaved upwards. Bolts of black lightning rained down tearing the ground asunder, throwing up chunks of rock and sand. The destined digimon swept around the bolts haphazardly avoiding the unexpected attack.

"Terra Force!" WarGreymon shouted as he summoned up a giant orb of energy, flinging it at Megidramon.

The act was more out of sheer terror than in any hope of destroying the beast, in fact WarGreymon wasn't all that surprised to see Megidramon slice through the ball of energy with a backhanded slap. A streak of black energy exploded right in front of WarGreymon. He saw the sizzling darkness burning the air. The energy was more than heat or electricity or magnetism, it was sheer force of hatred, of rage, of unmitigated loathing of everything.

"WarGreymon!" shouted a voice. The golden armored dragon warrior suddenly felt himself being driven to the ground. Metal Garurumon was tackling him. He blinked and saw the stream of flames flash past behind the metal wolf's contrail.

"That power, that darkness," WarGreymon looked into Metal Garurumon's eyes after the wolf had leapt free from the warrior.

"I've seen it before." The wolf growled. "It's alive, beyond being controlled by Megidramon. It haunts your heart and whispers in the back of your mind and if you allow it, it will consume you whole."

"Hell's Howling!" Megidramon thundered as he blew a stream of dead wind towards the two Mega digimon.

Metal Garurumon and WarGreymon leapt on either side of the attack as it struck the rocky ground of the canyon. As the wind swept past, the rock cracked and turned to sand as if it was being aged by millions of years.

"He's too powerful." WarGreymon grunted as he watched the Ultimate digimon frantically trying to grab the crimson dragon's attention.

"We have to protect the Destiny Tree." Metal Garurumon growled as he took a step forward. "We should attack together!"

WarGreymon gave the wolf a sidelong look and after a few seconds nodded.

"Terra Force!" Another orange sphere of light was launched forward from WarGreymon's mighty gauntlets.

"Metal Wolf Claw!" Metal Garurumon howled as he released a torrent of frost and ice.

The two attacks twisted around one another and then smashed into Megidramon's left arm. The dragon snarled angrily in response twisting around and looking at the blade-like armor on his arm. There was hardly a scratch. The dragon snorted and glared down at the metal wolf and the dragon warrior.

"Powerless," Megidramon snorted.

WarGreymon and Metal Garurumon braced for an attack, but it didn't come. The black lightning ceased and the next thing the destined digimon knew was Megidramon flying past them, ignoring their attempts.

"Hey!" Paildramon shouted as he chased after Megidramon. "Where are you going!?"

"Paildramon! Take the others, go to the kids, get them out of here, we'll try to stop Megidramon!" Metal Garurumon shouted to the dragon.

WarGreymon and Metal Garurumon took flight jetting after Megidramon. The dragon didn't stop them, didn't even look back. Megidramon was gliding towards the Destiny Tree.

The Tyranomon were standing at a ridge between Megidramon and the Destiny Tree. WarGreymon shouted to them to back down but they must not have listened, or decided to act regardless because the next thing WarGreymon saw was a twisting wave of flames rising up from the dinosaurs. Megidramon stopped and then looked down.

"STOP!" shouted WarGreymon as he pushed himself forward. "DRAMON DESTROYER!"

WarGreymon thrust his gauntlets' claws forward but Megidramon had noticed the coming strike from behind and swished his massive, armored tail and slammed the ivory arrowhead tip of the tail into WarGreymon, effectively swatting the Mega digimon down into the ground. Megidramon then took a deep breath.

"Hell's Howling!" A column of the gray, wind washed over the Tyranomon like a downburst from a storm.

WarGreymon looked up, but soon wished he hadn't. In the streams of wind he could see the Tyranomon. Their skin slowly became limp on their increasingly emaciated bodies. Teeth fell from their mouths. Those that had metal augmentation found that parts of their limbs had rusted away to red dust. Finally the remaining skin on the Tyranomon started to rot and erode away leaving nothing but bones and then even those turned to white, powdery dust that blew away with little resistance.

Megidramon then continued forward, dispassionately, without a laugh or a semblance of him acknowledging he'd just killed a whole army of digimon in one strike. WarGreymon clenched his fists and then leapt into the air, charging with all the speed his body could muster. He felt the air in front of him suddenly give way as he broke the sound barrier.

Megidramon was ignoring him. WarGreymon lifted one of his gauntlets; he was going to slice Megidramon like an onion. There was no need to kill those Tyranomon; they were no threat to him. WarGreymon roared loudly as he closed in on Megidramon.

"DIE YOU MURDERER!" screamed WarGreymon as he thrust his gauntlet forward.

WarGreymon's body jolted. The claws had hit the red armored skin of Megidramon. WarGreymon shook as he looked at his gauntlet. The long, sharp claws, the claws that were made specifically to destroy Dramon digimon, the claws that had defeated Metal Seadramon, Machinedramon, Piedmon, the claws that had gone against Black WarGreymon, those claws that had made him a frightening force to be reckoned with were shattered. They had broken against the armor, not even scratching the finish.

Megidramon didn't even bother turning around; the dragon continued forward towards the Destiny Tree. WarGreymon didn't even have to look, he didn't need to see. He could smell the scent of mesquite burning. He felt the eerie feeling of dimensions being torn apart. The other destined digimon flew past. Metal Garurumon flew up behind WarGreymon and nudged him.

"We must go, the area is falling apart," the wolf growled as he pushed WarGreymon into action.

"No you won't!" Megidramon growled. The red wyvern swerved around its wings pressing against the maelstrom. Tongues of flames rolled from between the dragon's clenched fangs. The dragon opened his maw and crimson flames roared forward. "Megiddo Flame!"

WarGreymon snagged his Brave Shields and pulled them in front of himself. He dove in front of Metal Garurumon. The flames roared forward smashing into his shields. The shields warped, twisting at the edges. WarGreymon groaned as he fell backwards. The fire whooshed around WarGreymon and he could hear Metal Garurumon screaming in pain. WarGreymon shook as the fire burst through his shields and hit him square on the chest. He could feel the energy leaving him as the world glowed and he fell downwards. He looked to his right and saw Tsunomon tumbling through the air. There was a flash of red and white and Tsunomon disappeared into the grasp of Silphymon who instantly shot off into the distance.

"KOROMON!" shouted Tai's voice.

Tai was standing on MegaKabuterimon's horn he strained reaching out. Tai's hands snatched Koromon out of the air and clutched the small digimon against his chest. In the distance the Great Dragon was hovering in the sky. It didn't proceed as the gaggle of Ultimates scattered away from him. It had shown them how absolutely powerless they were against the Great Dragon.

He knew the young man that was grasping onto him was feeling his feelings. They had never been powerless before. Even against the Dark Masters and Apocalymon there had always been hope, always been one last trump card one last hand to be played, one last crest left to glow, but now, they were at full capacity, every resource at their disposal and they couldn't put a scratch on the enemy's armor. Something cold stabbed Koromon's heart, something he'd felt only once before. He was afraid, truly, deeply, completely afraid, but not just of being destroyed, but that Tai, that human, that child, that friend most dear to him, would be killed and killed because he couldn't protect Tai's precious life.

Koromon narrowed his eyes. They had to find a way to stop the Great Dragons, they had to; it was the only way to keep Tai safe.

888

"Another tree those brats let burn," Ogremon snorted as he turned to the small group that was with him. The green, muscle bound beast glared at the humanoid lion sitting at the table in front of him. "You hear that Leomon!"

"I heard," Leomon said with a grumble. "It is dire, but there are some trees left."

"It doesn't matter." the ogre replied as he sat down. His curved horns swayed back and forth as he shook his head. "There could a million trees, and they couldn't stop Megidramon and his friends."

"Don't give up hope!" A pink, furry ball of a pixie buzzed forward on small feathered wings. "Gennai says that there is something coming, something that will give us a real chance! Yep, yep!"

"That old man is always saying those things, Piximon," Ogremon snorted as he looked around the small hut they were sitting in. It actually was Gennai's house, which he had moved after the Harmonious Ones had been defeated. Gennai himself was out, doing what he did best, that is being mysterious. Ogremon picked up the tea kettle from the table, "He hasn't any more of a plan than this tea kettle, in fact we should ask the tea kettle what we should do. Since its answer is exactly what we do anyways, just go out and do nothing!"

"There was no reason to kill Ultimate Brachiomon," Leomon said in a restrained voice. "He was coming around…"

"Feh, he was going to kill you, and everyone else," Ogremon stated, putting the tea kettle down and crossing his arms. "I saved your flea bitten hide. Admit it, Leomon!"

Leomon narrowed his eyes, "You killed a potentially important portion of our intelligence network! You have no sense of subtlety! No sense of anything beyond those claws of yours! You have been nothing but trouble!"

Ogremon jumped up, tossing the table at Leomon. The lion, with a single fluid motion unsheathed his machete and sliced through the table. Leomon leapt up, charging at Ogremon. Ogremon jumped over the oncoming lion and dove for the heavy, bone club he had laying on the floor. Ogremon swung around just in time to put the bone club up against the blade of Leomon.

"STOP IT BOTH OF YOU!" Piximon shouted. The next thing Ogremon and Leomon knew they had giant lumps on their heads, caused by well placed, painful smacks from Piximon's staff. "You're acting like Rookies, fighting over a scrap of food! If Gennai were to see you now…how disappointed he'd be…yep, yep…"

"Shut yer trap, pixie!" snarled Ogremon as he closed his hand tighter around his club.

The retort bought Ogremon another smack on the head from Piximon, which knocked the surly ogre out. Leomon smirked slightly, unfortunately Piximon saw it, and caught Leomon in the head with the backstroke, knocking the lion onto his back, unconscious.

Piximon dusted his hands off and nodded happily, "Never seen the two more peaceful, if I do say so myself, yep yep!"

888

"It is very, very interesting indeed," Gennai said quietly. He was standing out in a meadow, filled with flowers. "I should have anticipated you would be prepared for this contingency. Unfortunately my faith has been tested recently, more than I am used to, so my mind's been slightly overwhelmed. However, your plan is very wise, the dragons will then be working for us," Gennai paused for a second, "but your plan does have the drawback of making everything very narrow…it could be dangerous to the humans," Gennai looked to the sky and sighed as he watched the gray clouds pass overhead. He then looked back down at the flowers. "Although, if it provides us with what we need it may be worth it, in the end, to make the Human World vulnerable." Gennai turned slowly but then turned back. "It was nice to speak with you again, I know our earlier contact was not the best of situations, but I am glad you are still willing to work hard to protect this world."

Gennai turned and then started to walk through the flowers. As he did he disturbed a small, white butterfly that flapped quickly for a few seconds and then glided off on a sudden wind that blew up. Gennai looked up and lifted his hand, waving at the butterfly as it glided away.


	14. The Mouse in Front of the Lion part 1

**A Mouse in front of a Lion PT 1**

**I don't own digimon, or characterization of the Tankdramon. **

**888**

Gennai took a step backward. Leomon laid on his right, unconscious, Ogremon was on his left. Piximon was somewhere behind him. Gennai looked up. Holydramon hovered above him, the flames of the oak Destiny Tree framing her serpentine body, giving her fur a bloody pink color. Holydramon's helper, a large, metal chromed digimon known as DORUghoramon, was standing in front of Gennai, hunched over and looking down at him with an empty glare.

"Please…" Gennai said falling backward and lifting his hand. "Please, don't harm my friends. Take me instead!"

"But you were so relentless in your attempt to escape before?" Holydramon glided over Gennai's head. "What could change your disposition so?"

"I don't want you to kill my friends," Gennai said as he looked up at the goat-headed dragon. "They wouldn't have been in this situation if I hadn't convinced them to rebel…"

"Remorse from a Digital Sprite? My, your program has evolved," Holydramon curled back around and looked at Gennai. "However, I do not feel compelled towards clemency. Whether they rebelled due to your manipulation or because they are revolutionists, they still rebelled, and you are hardly in a position to give orders."

"If you don't let them live, I'll make things very difficult for you," Gennai said, standing up to the dragon and dusting off his robes.

"Ha!" Holydramon burst out laughing. "The tough act! You are definitely not subtle! How limited is your repertoire? Will you give me the 'puppy dog eyes' next?"

"Well, it wouldn't be as effective now that you're expecting it," Gennai said, looking up at Holydramon. He walked forward. "Trust me, if you ever wish to bridge the gap between this world and the human world, you'll have to go through me, and I can make that very difficult, or very easy. If you show a little mercy this once, it will go a long ways in making me more receptive to your questioning."

"Your threat is empty, we only need to destroy the Destiny Trees," Holydramon said, snorting slightly and looking to DORUghoramon. The blade-winged dragon straightened up and its gaze became less empty.

"Yes…well…of course you could blow seven gaping holes into the matrix of the Digital World, and tear the fabric of the universe asunder," Gennai said turning his back on Holydramon and spreading his arms out. "Who cares if there's a bull in the china shop? As long as the cows get their dishes! At the rate you're going you'll send both worlds into the void…thrust us into oblivion!" Gennai turned his head back to Holydramon. "As long as you can prove you're oh so powerful…Good luck Holydramon with being the God of Nothing!"

Gennai started to walk away.

"You haven't been granted release!" Holydramon shouted. The dragon swooped down in front of Gennai.

"If you won't listen, if you won't deal, then I'm done with you, I wash my hands of you," Gennai said glaring into the eyes of Holydramon and pointed back to Leomon, Ogremon and Piximon. "Now, spare them!"

"You won't demand me to do anything," Holydramon replied, baring her fangs. "I am a…"

"Yes, yes, you're a god, I should worship you, and your breath smells like roses and your feet like frankincense…" Gennai said putting his hands behind his back. "Believe whatever you want, Holydramon, but let my friends go."

"You have hubris," Holydramon said. A smile curled around her snout. "I like that…"

"Well, I try my best," Gennai smiled as pleasantly as possible.

"Not many can go about demanding things from a god," Holydramon said as she rose into the air, "less so from such a tempestuous god as I…"

"Well, I'm glad it's you and not Megidramon, or Goddramon, they lack a sense of humor," Gennai said as he rolled back and forth on the balls of his feet. "You are, in fact, the most amiable of the Great Dragons. I've been looking forward to doing business with you…"

"Ooo, flatterer," Holydramon blushed slightly as she looked down to Gennai, "Such a silver tongue! I best be careful, lest you con me out of something important…"

"Just my friends," Gennai said as he looked back to the group of stricken digimon. "Please, it is a simple enough request to fulfill, especially for someone as powerful as you."

"I will allow your friends to go, because I personally find it unentertaining to kill unconscious victims," Holydramon said with a flick of her head, which made her furry pink mane slosh back and forth. "You're lucky, Gennai, I'm in a granting mood. DORUghoramon, grab the sprite!"

DORUghoramon stomped over to Gennai and one of his flaming hands went out and the giant beast grabbed Gennai around the waist.

"Be careful," Gennai grunted as the claws curled ever so tightly around his stomach.

"Don't kill him," Holydramon shouted to DORUghoramon. "No, first we'll get what we want out of you first."

"It's all part of the deal," Gennai grunted as he shifted an arm behind his back and crossed his fingers. "I'll tell you everything you want to know about the barrier between this world and the next."

888

"Ah, another one Mr. Pierson?" the man in the lab coat and pea-green turtleneck said as he swiveled in his desk chair and looked to Marcus, who was being escorted by Agent Pierson. "Is this the one with the yellow dino?"  
"Yes, this is Marcus…" Agent Pierson started.

"Damon, yes, I have seen the files." The man said adjusting his glasses slightly, on his long face. His brown hair was disheveled though it had looked that at one time to have been neatly combed. The man jumped out of his seat and snatched the small white device at Marcus's hip.

"HEY!" Marcus shouted reaching out to the device but the man swept the device from Marcus's reach. "Who do you think you are?"

"This is HYPNOS lead investigator, head scientist, Dr. Akihiro Kurata…" Agent Pierson said quietly.

"These devices," the scientist interrupted, though he seemed to be talking more to himself, "are most intriguing. The circuits shouldn't make any sense, yet these devices seem to have some kind of complex, sympathetic response algorithm, that are directly linked to the human child that holds them and the creature that seems to be partnered with the child. A most interesting situation." The scientist looked up at Marcus. "I have of course taken samples from your little yellow friend…well I say small, he's actually abnormally large, from the observations of made of similar creatures. These creatures are very interesting, whilst they maintain a biological configuration; their tissues and organs superficially look organic, they are in fact composed of a very complicated electrophasic material…very difficult to explain in layman's terms…in fact…" The scientist frowned and turned back to his desk, and put the white device on the desk, and pulled out a set of tools from a drawer, "I'm not entirely sure why I'm trying to explain it to you at all. I will need to have a look at your device." He raised his hand as he sat down as if preemptively avoiding the refusal, "I will have it back soon; I just want to see the inside of it…"

"Come along, Marcus, we shall go and meet your other team mates." Agent Pierson said quietly as he ushered Marcus out.

"So he's the lead investigator?" Marcus said as he looked back towards the office of the scientist. "The guy creeps me out…"

"Yeah, he does that to everyone." Pierson said, as they walked down the hall. "He snuck into HYPNOS early on, after the Diablo virus attack. It's said he lost his fiancée when the street lights went buggy." Pierson stopped at a pair of metal doors; he looked down at Marcus. "The man's obsessed with the other world; I can't say that I find his interests healthy." Pierson pushed on the doors. "Well, let's meet the gang!"

888

"Daisuke?" Jun poked her head into her brother's room. She frowned as she looked at the clothes strewn and piled in clumps. A gym sock hung from his desk chair. "Jeesh, I guess it's a good thing you decided to back off that Yagami girl…if she looked in here she'd scream…" She saw a roughly human lump on a tossed and twisted bed. "Daisuke, what are you doing sleeping this late in the afternoon, for that matter what are you doing home? Aren't you going to go with your friends to the…"

"There's no point," Daisuke's voice struggled to escape the blankets and came out in a stunted muffle.

His head poked up. His eyes were puffy and something was dribbling from his nose, whether it was the remnant of a tear or a liquid stream of snot Jun didn't know and really didn't want to find out.

"Well, Inoue's little sister is on the phone; she wants to know where you are," Jun said as she limply held the family's cordless phone in Daisuke's general direction.

"Tell her that I'm not coming," Daisuke said as his head plopped back down onto the bed. "I'm not feeling well."

"Liar," Jun said but the boy didn't rise to the bait. Jun looked around, "Hey where's that little bunny thing you have?"

"DemiVeemon is sleeping on the floor somewhere," Daisuke said. His rose slightly from his pillow and looked to Jun, eyes half open, "Just leave me alone…I said I don't feel well."

"Ok, Mr. Krabs," Jun said as she withdrew from the national disaster area that was Daisuke's room. She closed the door behind her and lifted the phone to her ear, "Yeah, he says he's not feeling well or something." Jun paused for a second and listened to the sound of a collection of growls that represented Miyako's consternation. Jun was about to say goodbye but suddenly her throat and lips had another idea, "Umm, hey, Miyako, did something happen to you guys recently. Daisuke's acting weird…I mean more than normal. He's been really cranky and well, he's taking a nap…outside of school."

There was silence on the other end of the phone. A quick negative shot out of the receiver and then a sharp click, followed by the droning of the dial tone. Jun frowned. Something was up and it had to do with Daisuke's friends and the digital world that they had been going to last year. Jun turned to Daisuke's closed door.

"Even Mom and Dad are starting to notice," Jun said quietly to the door. "What's wrong with you, Daisuke?"

She hugged the phone, of course their parents really noticed when the food bill dropped by thirty percent. That rabbit digimon thing of Daisuke's was different too. It was like it was being changed by Daisuke and had become rather quiet and had been eating less as well.

Daisuke even stopped fighting back when she teased him. He used to get so wound up and combative but now he would just grunt and wander off. They used to fight about everything and now he just slouches off into his bedroom and disappears. At first, Jun had thought he'd found out about himself and was rather disgusted by the inordinate amount of time he spent in his bedroom alone, but no, that wasn't it either. He just seemed sad and beaten, kind of like how her father looked after work, or how those businessmen looked when they got on the subway.

"What's happening…?" Jun whispered to the phone, half expecting an answer.

888

"I don't get it, ever since Holydramon burned that tree a week ago, Daisuke has been depressed," Miyako frowned as she put the phone on the hook. "It's not like there was anything we could do to stop Holydramon. She did it while we were sleeping."

"I think that's the problem," Ken said as he walked up to the computer that displayed the Digital Gate. "This fight…this war with the Dragons is beyond anything we're prepared to fight. Even Daisuke's battery runs dry…"

"We can't just give up, though," Takeru said. The blonde pushed forward and then leaned against the desk with the computer on it. "I'm not just saying that because I'm the Child of Hope either…"

"The Dragons will definitely not stop at just the Digital World," Iori said. The little boy frowned and looked at the floor. "I remember the battle for the Island of Format…Volcdramon talked as if the Digital World was just a stepping stone."

"The scary part is that last week was the last we heard from Gennai…" Hikari looked up at the other kids. "What if the Dragons caught Gennai?"

"That's another problem in and of itself." Ken said, folding his arms over his chest.

"What are we going to do?" Hikari said. Her frown was well defined and she was fidgeting slightly. "We can't hurt them."

The door to the computer lab opened. Taichi, Yamato, Koushiro and Jyou walked through the door, carrying their digimon.

"Where's Daisuke?" Taichi asked as his eyes skimmed the room.

"He's not coming," Miyako said with a frown. "He doesn't 'feel good'."

"What?" Taichi furrowed his brows and looked at Miyako. "Is he serious?"

"He said he wasn't coming, or rather, Jun said he said he wasn't coming," Miyako replied as she looked to Ken.

"There isn't time for his games," Taichi said clenching a fist. "When I get a hold of…"

"Tai," Hikari walked up to her brother and grasped his fist. "Daisuke's under a lot of pressure…"

"So!? You don't think I was when we fought the Dark Masters!? I made him the leader for a reason!" Taichi glared at his little sister. "He can't just run away!"

"He's not running away!" Ken shouted. The others turned and looked at the dark haired boy. "He's just scared, he doesn't know what to do, and neither do you. You're just as scared as he is. You just deny it. You just keep plowing forward, ignoring the fear you have."

"How dare you!?" Taichi returned pushing past Hikari. He grabbed Ken by the front of his gray uniform. "How dare you?"

"I think it'd be best if I go talk to Daisuke alone," Ken said, pulling himself from Taichi's grip. Ken walked past Taichi, Wormmon scrambled behind him.

"I didn't say you could leave!" Taichi shouted as Ken reached for the door of the computer lab.

"I'm going to see Daisuke, you are not my boss," Ken said, slinging his small briefcase over his shoulder. He opened the door and walked out.

"Let's go, some of us still need to protect the Destiny Trees," Taichi shouted as he turned and walked to the computer.

888

"AGUMON!" Marcus ran to the large yellow dinosaur and hugged it tightly. "They treat you ok?"

"Of course boss!" Agumon said as he hugged the boy back.

Marcus looked up at the rest of the people in the gymnasium. There were five other kids in the room, well three kids and a young man and a young woman. Two of the three kids were blonde boys both about Marcus's age, one was well dressed in a button down white shirt and gray vest and he had a blue, bipedal husky standing next to him. The other was a boy wearing a blue hoody he had a small humanoid rocky digimon standing near him. The other child was a girl about his age that was blonde and wore a black dress. She had a small robotic beetle standing next to her.

The two older people also had digimon with them. The young woman, who looked like she was about eighteen or nineteen, wore a pink tank top. She had auburn hair. Beside of her was a green bud with a pink flower cap that hovered beside her. The blonde young man, who looked to be a similar age as the young woman was a hulking mountain of a person. He wore a green and yellow striped T-shirt that strained against his chiseled frame. A black gear digimon hovered next to him.

"Hello everyone, please welcome our newest member, Marcus Damon." Agent Pierson said as he walked towards the others. He turned and looked back to Marcus. "Allow me to introduce you." He walked to the three youngest. He stood next to the well dressed boy. "This is Thomas Norstein, yes of the Norstein Corporation Norsteins and already has a bachelor's degree in bioinformatics from Cornell University." He then walked behind the boy in the hoody. "This is Kouki Tsubasa he came to us in a similar fashion as you did." Agent Pierson held his hand out to the girl. "This is Nanami Jones, she's a certified genius, member of MENSA." He turned to the older children. "This is Yoshi Fujieda, she was sixteen during that internet virus attack that accidentally launched a nuclear missile a couple of years back." He looked over to the hulking young man. "This is Ivan Volkov, we snagged him trying to do work for a branch of the Russian mafia. Fortunately he was willing to work for us if we helped his family."

"So, this is the new meat huh?" Kouki said, rubbing his hands together. "Wonder what we will have to do to him, huh Gotsumon?"

"Really already, Kouki?" Thomas said quietly, shaking his head.

"Boys, boys! Now everyone show Mr. Damon what we've been teaching you." Agent Pierson said, clapping both boys on the back. The children nodded and looked to their digimon. The digimon instantly paired off and began to spar. Agent Pierson walked back to Marcus and Agumon. "You see, HYPNOS was developed as a department to monitor and hopefully mitigate further incursions from the other world. However, the current situation suggests we do a bit more, and we here at HYPNOS have found out that you kids seem to be vitally connected to the other world, and we have decided to utilize you as a resource. Your raw talent will be shaped with training, both combat and tactical, so that when the next incursion comes we'll have an elite defensive force." Agent Pierson looked to Marcus. "So what do you think?"

"I think…" Marcus watched as the blue husky took on both the gear and the robotic beetle. "I think this is so cool!"

888

"You captured the Sprite?" Megidramon hovered over Gennai, he was talking to Holydramon.

Holydramon's ferret-like body curled around and the goat-headed dragon confirmed Megidramon's statement. Gennai didn't move, didn't shift, but rather stood stoically in front of the two monsters.

"We'd have been back sooner, but there were villages I wanted eliminated," Holydramon said as she looked up to Megidramon. She looked back to Gennai, "He says that he'll give us the information we need to enter the Human World,"

"Oh, really?" Megidramon lowered himself down and looked Gennai in the eyes. "Is that so?"

"Well, you know the memory…it cheats," Gennai said, not making eye contact with the dragon. "Did I say that?"

"You did," Holydramon said. Her lips curled slightly revealing a row of sharp teeth. "You best not have lied to me, sprite!"

"Me, lie…never, I don't lie!" Gennai said dusting off his robes and then he looked up at the dragons with a furrowed brow. "Or do I? I mean it has been a very long life…I can't say I never lie…or that I don't lie…because quite frankly I may have lied at some point in the past or may lie in the future"

"If you are lying to us, now, you will be subjected to torture and then death!" Megidramon said. The dragon's nostrils flared puffing a river of smoke into Gennai's face.

"You aren't going to use someone with cold hands? Are you?" Gennai face contorted as he frowned.

"What do you mean?" Megidramon eyed the man as he rose into the air again.

"Well, I do hate being tortured by a person with cold hands; it's most unprofessional," Gennai said as he put his hand on his chin and stroked the area. "Yes, indeed a person should never torture another person with cold hands, it's just cruel."

"YOU WILL TELL US WHAT YOU KNOW!" Megidramon roared, loudly, shaking the large hall they were in. The dragon's eyes flashed blood red as tongues of fire squeezed out between clenched teeth.

"Well, ok, since you asked so nicely…" Gennai said crossing his arms over his chest. "First things first, not always in that order..." Gennai turned and looked around, "You wouldn't happen to have a monitor of some sort lying around would you?"

Holydramon snapped her fingers and the wall in front of Gennai cracked open and slid apart, revealing a giant screen.

"Get on with it!" Megidramon snarled, glaring down at Gennai.

"Right…" Gennai walked forward; there was a massive consul in front of the screen. Gennai spied a green button, "I suspect this turns it on..." Gennai said pressing the button and bringing the screen to life. Gennai reached out to the other buttons. "Command consuls all pretty much the same…so let's begin…"

"Finally," Megidramon glared down to the man.

"Well the first thing you absolutely, positively, irreconcilably must understand is that…and this is very important, is that the primary function of a digital port is to get from this world, the Digital World, to the Human World, once we have that down you'll be all but nearly there!" Gennai said bringing up a display on the screen. He turned to the two dragons, putting his hands in his pockets.

"We already know this!" Megidramon snarled.

"Oh, well…then...I suppose there's no need for the sock puppets then…" Gennai said, sulking as he pulled his hands out of his pockets, dropping a pink and red sock.

"He's just stalling for time!" Megidramon roared to Holydramon. He glared back down at Gennai. "We'll make you talk!"

"You don't have to make me talk, I talk far too much as it is," Gennai said with a coy smile. "A regular jabberbox I am…yes indeedy doo…Ugh that sounded corny didn't it?"

"SILENCE!" Megidramon roared. The hall shook again as the massive, red wyvern curled up higher towards the ceiling. "Your flippancy will be your end!"

"Now I'm talking too much?" Gennai asked, unseriously, giving an overwrought look of quizzicalness. "I thought you wanted me to talk? Now you say silence? Megidramon, dear, you're sending mixed messages…"

"I shall cook you, sprite." Megidramon growled. "If you will not talk I will find every ally you have and I will…" He snarled as fire knifed forward melting a metal pylon next to Gennai. Megidramon turned to Holydramon and growled. "And you were taken in by this jabbering jackanape!"

Holydramon shrunk back from Megidramon's roar. The pink dragon then glared to Gennai. "You lied to me…I don't like being lied to. You will speak or you will be killed!"

"Well, killing me won't help you very much," Gennai said to Holydramon. He paused and rubbed his chin, "it won't be very good for me either…now that I think about it."

"Holy…." Holydramon took a deep breath.

"Ok, ok!" Gennai put his hands in the air. "Fine, jeesh, everyone's a critic nowadays." Gennai turned back to the consul. "The major contributor of the Digital Gate is a forty by ninety magneto field generator. It's powered by a two point eight terawatt power supply system. The first thing you have to do is reconstruct the spatial dimensions of the void between the worlds. That's imperative because if you don't you'll get a quadratic hysterisis in the chronoton field that will result in your mesons and neurons being plastered across every reality in the multi-verse…" Gennai turned and looked up at the pair of dumbfounded dragons. "Well, are you getting this down?"

Holydramon blinked in confusion.

"We need to get a technician," Holydramon said looking back to Megidramon.

"Of course, of course, fourteen dimension physics in a constrained power, trans-universal singularity anomaly is very, very complicated stuff," Gennai said with a smile as he put his hands behind his back and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. He coughed slightly and put his hand over his mouth, "and I wouldn't mind you having a go at explaining this gobbledygook to me while you're at it…"

"What was that?" Megidramon snarled at the man.

"Dust…horrible allergens I'm afraid," Gennai said coughing several more times for effect.

"Go get the technician," Megidramon said to Holydramon and then looked to Gennai.

It took Holydramon about fifteen minutes to return with a SEALSdramon. The cybernetic dragon walked forward.

"You – will – ex-plain!" The dragon commanded as he looked down at Gennai with its red, scouter eye.

"Well, as I was saying, you need to provide a major power supply to the digi-port," Gennai turned to the screen. "Because we're dealing with a multi-dimensional anomaly it's very important you have your quantum physics down…Now, you must reconfigure the subspace transfer field in an exact configuration, or else you'll just blow everything up. The important bit is knowing to put the field inversion at exactly seventy-six point eight degrees from the dimensional horizon…"

The SEALSdramon turned to Megidramon, "This – en-ti-ty – is – ly-ing!"

"What! Well, I am affronted! That's a clearly a vicious slur!" Gennai shouted pointing to the SEALSdramon.

"Its – words – are – meaning-less!" the SEALSdramon turned to Gennai. "You are – ly-ing!"

"Well, yes…but…" Gennai looked up at the two Great Dragons. "Fine you got me! I'm not telling you how to make a digi-port!"

"Take him to the dungeon!" Megidramon snarled. "We'll deal with him later. Send out the Seadramon to attack our next target!"

888

"I'm very important!" Gennai struggled in the clawed hands of the Strikedramon guards. "Don't think a simple jail can hold me! I have friends, you know like the Digi-destined! Remember the Dark Masters! Myotismon! Apocalymon! They all got defeated by the Digi-destined!"

"Silence, infidel!" The Strikedramon reached up and touched a button.

The empty space in front of the cell shimmered as the energy shield dispersed. The Strikedramon slung Gennai into the cell and pressed the button again. The cell's opening shimmered and Gennai leapt forward. An energy barrier sparked to life throwing Gennai backwards.

"Well, this is hardly what I'd call hospitality!" Gennai groused, shaking his head and dusting himself off.

"You really are an idiot," a voice chuckled from the opposite side of the prison hall.

Gennai walked up to the entrance of the cell and looked across the hall. A pair of red eyes glowed out of the shadows.

"Who's there?" Gennai looked at the eyes.

"Your brats may have defeated all those enemies but even you must realize they were just impotent playthings compared to the Great Dragons," the voice said as the eyes rose. The shadows folded back from the figure revealing a roughly humanoid form with large black wings. "Even when they faced Daemon, they couldn't harm him."

"Beelzemon!" Gennai said as he looked across the corridor.

"Yeah," The demon said placing one of his metallic claws against the barrier on his cell. Energy sparked across the claw as he slid it across the shielding.

"I didn't think you survived," Gennai said. "I didn't think anyone survived that battle but the Great Dragons."

"Yes, well you've been wrong so often I hardly believe you'd notice," Beelzemon said turning away from Gennai.

"Well, at least I evaded cap…" Gennai blinked and looked at the shimmer of energy at the opening of his cell, "…ture…"

"Why are you here?" Beelzemon asked as he returned to the shadows.

"I was caught…" Gennai said as he slid his hands into the arms of his robes.

"Yeah, sure, captured…Why are you here?" Beelzemon said, turning and looked to Gennai. "If you had wanted you could've escaped…"

"Jeesh, I must be getting really, really predictable," Gennai sighed as he leaned against the wall of his cell. "I'm here to investigate. Four weeks ago I was in the Beemon Empire when the Tankdramon attacked; they kept rattling on about Demon Technology…"

"Oh, that," Beelzemon turned back to his cell. He waved his hand, "Just something Daemon cooked up…"

"What 'thing that Daemon cooked up'!?" Gennai stood straight and placed his hands on the barrier in front of him, ignoring the snapping electrical field grabbing his fingers.

"Oh, it's a flying ship, a hover ship…one of those aerial weapon platform things," Beelzemon said as he sat down in his cell. "He used them to fight Belphemon's zombie armies in the Demon War, but Lucemon destroyed the ships...you know how that sort of thing works."

"If the dragons get their claws on…" Gennai pushed back from the barrier.

"Oh, they already have their claws on it," Beelzemon said as he looked at his claws. "They've been perfecting its design, arming it, enabling it with stealth technology and making the power transfers more efficient. Goddramon's probably down there now making sure that the Tankdramon are doing their work."

"With that kind of technology their invasion of the Human World would be insanely easy," Gennai walked backward and slumped against a bench at the back of his cell. "Even if we did get the needed help, we may not be able to counterstrike against a fleet of those things…"

"Well, maybe we should do something about it," Beelzemon said, standing up. The demon stretched and wiggled his fingers. "This place is starting to cramp my style."

"You've got to be kidding me," Gennai said, looking up at the demon, "Me, team up with you…that's just blasphemy waiting to happen."

"And we have a bunch of God wannabes to blaspheme against, what's the problem?" Beelzemon said as he curled his right hand into a fist.

"Well, other than the fact that I can't trust you…" Gennai replied standing up.

"Well, who can you trust nowadays? I mean really, you can barely trust yourself," Beelzemon said.

"Well, you do have a point," Gennai said. "And I have to say that I haven't much else planned for today, well, other than that horrible torture followed by death thing, but I can always reschedule. Let's blow this pop stand!"

"Already on it!" Beelzemon swept his claws up. "Darkness Claw!"

888

"Wow this place has really changed," Iori said as he walked down the street. There was a large city on the seaside where the Destiny Tree had grown.

"I don't know if this is a good thing or not," Koushiro said as he looked around. "With this many digimon around, we could have a problem. If the dragons attacked there'll be a lot of casualties."

"We should probably work on doing evacuations," Miyako said as she looked up at the glowing leaves of the huge hemlock Destiny Tree.

"That looks like a transmitter of some sort," Jyou pointed up to a TV station on one of the bluffs that surrounded the city. A radar tower projected upward towards the sky.

"I'll go up there and see if I can't get the people who run the station to send out a warning to the rest of town," Koushiro said.

"We should use that as a meeting place incase something happens," Takeru said as he looked around the vast streets of the city.

"Right," Koushiro said as he and Tentomon rain down a street leading to the TV station.

"Miyako, Iori, you'll be in charge of evacuation," Taichi said as he looked up at the Destiny Tree. "The rest of us will take up a defensive position on the other side of the tree."

Taichi, Yamato, Jyou, Hikari and Takeru ran down the street, towards the ocean. There were several flashes of light as their digimon digivolved. Miyako turned to Iori, Armadillomon and Hawkmon.

"Well, we should at least survey the city from up top…" Miyako said as she lifted her D-3.

Aquilamon rose into the air, carrying Miyako, Iori and Armadillomon and they began their aerial survey.

888

A sweeping kick sent one of the Strikedramon crashing against a wall. Gennai ducked under the sweeping claws of another Strikedramon. Beelzemon backhanded a group of Flamedramon with his Corona Destroyer.

Klaxons howled in Gennai's ears. They had to reach the construction bay. Beelzemon had been leading the way. The demon seemed very knowledgeable of the palace. Gennai had thought that he was possibly too knowledgeable but put it out of his mind.

"Pests," Beelzemon shouted as he smacked away another group of Strikedramon, sending them sprawling across the metal floor.

"Which way?" Gennai asked as he ran to the intersection of the corridor they were in.

"Left," Beelzemon said as he swung around and pointed his Corona Destroyer down the left corridor and opened fire. A pulse of plasma swept out the hall.

Gennai sprinted down the hallway. Beelzemon was behind him. The demon had his double barreled pistol drawn and was pointing it backward. Several loud 'blams' echoed in Gennai's ears as Beelzemon shot down a number of Strikedramon and Flamedramon that were trying to follow them. They came to another fork in the road and Beelzemon pushed Gennai to the right corridor which led to a downward spiraling staircase.

"Well, this is almost fun," Gennai said with a laugh as he bounded down the stairs.

"If you think this is fun…" Beelzemon said as he spun around, flared his wings and hovered, firing his pistols at a group of Raidramon that had taken on the pursuit, "I'd hate to think of what you consider work…"

"Me too," Gennai said as he leapt onto the landing, his feet hitting the floor running.

888

Koushiro watched from the TV station. He could see the streams of digimon filing out of the city. The executives of the station had been very gracious. He was in the process of checking out the Doppler signature, with any luck the radar could pick up the attackers. Tentomon was talking with one of the technicians, a Datamon. The capsule-like machine digimon was reconfiguring the radar output to make it more effective to detect incoming digimon.

"Mmm, this city sprung up under the Destiny Tree because we thought it would protect us," Datamon said in response to one of Tentomon's questions. "If I'd have known it was going to be magnet for an attack. We'd have moved the city elsewhere. Most of us are young, and many are so young as to not even remember the Dark Masters."

"I wish things were different, Datamon," Koushiro said as he looked down at his laptop, he had it connected up to the radar system. "We'll try our best to minimize casualties and collateral damage."

"Don't worry, you just being here makes me want to take up the proverbial sword and raise a ruckus against the Great Dragons!" Datamon said flailing his long, extendable arms about.

"We couldn't ask you to do that," Tentomon said hurriedly, ducking under one of the sweeping arms.

"I suppose not," Datamon said and turned back to his work.

"You've done more than enough," Koushiro said as the radar flared to life. Several, snakish echoes blazed on the monitor in front of him. "They're coming."

"Seadramon!" Tentomon yelped as he hopped forward.

"I'll contact Tai and the others," Koushiro said as he pulled out his D-terminal.

888

Miyako frowned. The evacuation had been going so smoothly. The digimon from the city had been so congenial and polite and no one was pushing or shoving. Then Koushiro sends her an email saying that Seadramon were on their way and that she needed to hurry the evacuation. So she and Iori prodded the digimon to move faster, and that in of itself was going rather well until a streak lightning sliced through the city street evaporating a group of Rookie digimon a few blocks down. A giant, red serpent roared overhead and then the entire thing turned from peaceful and pleasant to angry and hectic. She and Iori got separated and Aquilamon was forced to airlift Miyako out of the swarming digimon tide. She saw a flash of golden light and then the spiky, domed back of Ankylomon rise out of the evacuation like a massive boulder out of white water rapids.

Even Ankylomon had a hard time staying in place as the digimon struggled to get away. Miyako looked up and saw that the serpent was coming back around. Its golden mask proved that it was MegaSeadramon.

"Aquilamon, we need to hold MegaSeadramon off, or else Iori's going to end up getting pushed out of town," Miyako shouted over the din.

The eagle nodded and dove downward and then swept upward opening its large beak and firing several waves of energy into the huge sea serpent. MegaSeadramon roared again and twisted its head around. The large, jagged horn on its head sparked to life.

"Thunder Javelin!" The lightning bolt sliced through the air like a scalpel, blowing up a building behind Aquilamon.

Another strike was building in the red snake's horn. The blast flew and struck Aquilamon in the chest throwing the huge, bird of prey into the swirling tide of digimon below. Miyako screamed as she tumbled through the air. The sea dragon curled above her and fired another streak of lightning into the crowd below.

Aquilamon twisted and somehow regained control of his descent and wheeled around catching Miyako on his back.

"He's too strong," Aquilamon retorted as he dove toward the buildings for cover. MegaSeadramon didn't take up pursuit but rather resumed his bombardment of the retreating digimon.

"We can't just leave them to get slaughtered!" Miyako shouted as three then four blasts of lightning exploded into the crowds.

"I agree," Aquilamon said as he glided past a balcony. He hovered in front of the balcony's railing, "I'll digivolve, but you have to stay here, where it's safe!"

"Right," Miyako said as she hopped off the eagle's back onto the balcony. She lifted her D-3 and pointed it at Aquilamon, "Go for it!"

Aquilamon flew upwards as the two digimentals that Miyako held engulfed him. The eagle disappeared and then reappeared as a cybernetic man with a white furred chest and the leggings of a red eagle. The man hovered for a bit and nodded down to Miyako, and Miyako gave the man a thumbs up.

"Get him, Silphymon!" Miyako shouted as the cybernetic man flew off.

888

Gennai leaned against a wall, huffing and puffing. They had lost their pursuers for the time being. Beelzemon was bent forward clasping his knees.

"We need to find a computer consul," Gennai said between pants. "I have to get the plans of that ship."

"We aren't far from the construction bay," Beelzemon said, rising to his full height. "If we hurry we might be able to sneak in due to the frenzy we caused."

"They won't expect us to go to the construction facility, they'll be guarding the exits," Gennai nodded. Beelzemon walked past him and Gennai followed. Gennai looked up at the demon. His leather coat was covered in scorch marks. "Why did you do it?"

"Do what?" Beezlemon replied, glaring back at Gennai.

"Free the dragons, you must have known that they'd torture you," Gennai said.

"Call it, atonement," Beelzemon said as he drew up against the wall of the corridor. They were approaching a corridor. The demon turned back to Gennai. "It's right around here. This door, here."

"This isn't going to be some grand plot to recapture me is it?" Gennai asked as he glanced around the corner to find the door unguarded.

"Why would I free you if I was just going to recapture you?" Beelzemon asked as he looked down at Gennai.

"Morale breaking, tire me out for torture, or just because you like being a bastard," Gennai said ticking off the reasons on his finger.

"Ah, just shaddup and go already," Beelzemon said pushing Gennai around the corner.

Gennai walked up to the door and reached for the handles, but then his ears caught a small hum and he stopped and slowly drew his hands back. He turned to Beelzemon.

"You better open the doors," Gennai said as he backed away from the door handles.

"What, why?" Beelzemon asked, looking at the doors and then to Gennai and then back to the doors.

"They're electrified, if I touch them, I'll get thrown across the room," Gennai said, looking at the door. "I'm more fragile than you are."

"So you just assumed I'd willingly get zapped to kingdom come," Beelzemon said as he glared at Gennai with his red eyes.

"Me? Assume? Never!" Gennai waved his hands in the air in front of him. "As they say when you assume you make an…"

"Yeah, yeah," Beelzemon lifted his Corona Destroyer, "Well, I'm not going to get electrocuted and then go into a blazing storm of Tankdramon firepower. So we're taking the less delicate way in. CORONA DESTROYER!"

Gennai winced, turning his back away from the awesome light of the attack. The doors exploded inward disintegrating before they could crash and clattered on the ground. Gennai blinked as the dust cleared. The construction bay was empty.

Gennai spun around and glared at Beelzemon, "You lied to me! This is a trap!"

"No it's not," Beelzemon said as he walked into the bay, cautiously. Gennai walked slowly behind the demon, not sure if he should trust Beelzemon.

"Then where's the ship?" Gennai said as he looked into the massive bay. It was truly huge, it had to be at least a mile long. Gennai whistled as he looked back and forth, "Wherever it is, it's the biggest thing in the sky…definitely bigger than a breadbox."

"This is what you've been looking for?" Beelzemon asked, pointing to a screen with a keyboard in front of it.

"Yes!" Gennai hopped forward and looked up at the monitor. The display showed an easy to navigate system that was basically a how-to-guide on building Daemon's warship. "Perfect…"

"A little too perfect," Beelzemon took a deep breath through his nose. His lips curled into a scowl.

"I think the demon has caught on!" A voice laughed. Gennai turned around. A white armored man-like dragon, with large blue wings, rose to the balcony that he and Beelzemon were standing on. His head was square with two horns curling forward.

"Dynasmon…" Gennai hissed, backing away from the royal knight dragon.

"I'm afraid your little jaunt is over," The dragon said as he opened his clawed hands, uncovering a pair of red jewels in his palms.

"He's not alone," Beelzemon said, gritting his teeth.

"The fools," A rough voice shouted. A black digimon dropped from the high roof of the construction yard. He wore old style samurai armor. His white hair swept around his shingle-helmeted head. His clawed hands held two, jagged swords. "They actually thought they were getting away with something in the Gods' home! Little did they know that the Gods' Ark had already departed!"

"Yes, this demon thought he could defile our Gods' temple!" Dynasmon shouted theatrically. "Dear GaiOumon, would you wish to go first? Or shall I?"

"My, for executioners they sure are polite," Gennai said, turning back to the consul, "Can you hold them, alone?"

"Of course!" Beelzemon said not even turning back to Gennai, "I'm a Demon Lord; a couple of lizards aren't going to scare me!"

"Good, then I think I'll send an e-mail," Gennai said as he reached out toward the keyboard. "Now, first, where did it go?"

Beelzemon swung his Corona Destroyer around and fired. Dynasmon and GaiOumon quickly moved out of the way and retreated into more open air.

"Gaia Reactor!" GaiOumon crossed his jagged swords and an orb of blue energy swirled at the intersection. The ball fired forward, getting larger as it traveled.

Beelzemon lifted his claws and sliced them through the ball and then leapt off of the balcony and took flight. His hand found his gun holster and drew the double barrel pistol.

"Double Impact!" The gun fired by Dynasmon dove in the way and pushed his hands forward.

The bullets exploded into Dynasmon's palms and were absorbed by the red jewels, which were embedded in the dragon's flesh. Dynasmon clenched his fists and a flaming aura surrounded his hands.

"Dragon Roar!" Dynasmon flung his arms forward hurling fireballs at Beelzemon.

The demon smashed against the scaffolding where Gennai was working. Gennai fell forward onto the keyboard of the consul.

"Watch what you're doing!" Gennai shouted as he quickly tried to see what was going on with the computer.

"Shut it!" Beelzemon retorted and pushed off of the scaffolding and glared at Dynasmon. "So you can suck up some energy…well eat this!"

Beelzemon lifted his Corona Destroyer and fired. Dynasmon laughed loudly as he lifted his hands. The plasma from the giant cannon swirled into his palms.

"Fool, you just give me ammunition!" Dynasmon laughed as he clenched his fists again.

"Aw, nuts…" Beelzemon frowned as the dragon punched forward releasing a torrent of flames at him.

Beelzemon was thrown backward again, but this time GaiOumon was behind him waiting and slammed a heavy, leather foot into his back. Beelzemon tumbled forward.

"Not so fast, demon!" Dynasmon dove down in front of Beelzemon and slammed a fist into his stomach.

Beelzemon felt the contents of his stomach lurch upward. He swallowed hard, restraining the bile and semi-digested gruel from flying out everywhere. He curled his clawed hands and sliced forward, but Dynasmon was much faster and easily dove away from the swiping claws.

Beelzemon twisted around hoping to fire on GaiOumon, but the samurai WarGreymon was gone. Beelzemon then twisted back, only to find Dynasmon also was gone.

"Damn it!" Beelzemon shouted to the air.

"He's so confused," chortled Dynasmon from behind Beelzemon. The demon swung around but saw nothing.

"He doesn't realize that we have him right where we want him," the raspy hiss of GaiOumon said.

"I'm so close, I can touch him!" Dynasmon shouted from behind Beelzemon. The demon swung around, slashing air with his claws.

"I could cut him, into tiny pieces," GaiOumon's voice said. "I'm so close I can taste him!"

Beelzemon spun around again, finding nothing he clenched his claws.

"He's getting frustrated," Dynasmon commented.

"He'll break soon," GaiOumon agreed.

"DAMN IT!" Beelzemon pointed his Corona Destroyer forward and opened fire.

GaiOumon and Dynasmon suddenly appeared in a fuzzy shift of movement as the attack passed near them. Dynasmon flew forward twisting laterally as he did so and grabbed Beelzemon around the waist. GaiOumon drove forward, his two swords drawn.

"Get off of me!" Beelzemon shouted as he drilled his claws into Dynasmon's back.

The dragon knight howled and Beelzemon kicked him free. Beelzemon pointed his double barreled pistols at the tumbling dragon and fired. Dynasmon flipped backward through the air and disappeared down below. Beelzemon then smashed his Corona Destroyer into GaiOumon who had continued charging forward. The dragon warrior flew backward and Beelzemon fired his Corona Destroyer. The plasma rifle released a huge blaze of blue plasma, smashing into GaiOumon's chest. The digimon's swords flew into the air and then tumbled towards the earth several meters below, followed by their owner.

Beelzemon snorted in arrogance down towards the ground and then flicked his wings and rose upwards towards where Gennai was.

Gennai turned and looked at the demon. "So, you won…"

Beelzemon landed on the scaffolding, "They're out of our way."

"The ship's going on a collection trip," Gennai said, looking back at the screen. "However, it's detouring to go to the dragons' next Destiny Tree target, observation purposes. I sent an e-mail packet to the digi-destined. It contains the plans for the ship."

"Now what?" Beelzemon asked, as he looked at the man in front of him.

"Well, I did what I wanted to get done, so I'm game for leaving here," Gennai said. "You can stay if you like…"

"No, I have things I must do, and I don't think I can get any more assistance out of the dragons," Beelzemon said and grabbed Gennai by the hand, and before Gennai could protest Beelzemon had taken flight and was firing on the ceiling of the construction bay.

888

Taichi punched the air as he watched WarGreymon slam ChaosSeadramon back into the ocean. The huge, gray and blue metal beast was a cousin of MetalSeadramon and was bigger and more powerful that his metal family.

The MegaSeadramon and WaruSeadramon he'd brought with him were being dealt with by Zudomon, MagnaAngemon and Angewomon. Silphymon and Shakkoumon were also working to keep the attackers from harming the evacuating digimon.

ChaosSeadramon exploded out of the water and his snout flared to life as he released an Ultimate Stream attack. WarGreymon and Metal Garurumon spiraled around the stream of energy and drove forward. Metal Garurumon crashed his front paws into ChaosSeadramon's forehead. The metal wolf howled and a stream of ice coated ChaosSeadramon. WarGreymon then slammed his gauntlets into Chaos Seadramon's throat. The giant sea serpent shuddered as WarGreymon thrust his claws into it again. This time the beast exploded into black bits of data.

Taichi cheered, as did Jyou, Kari, TK and Matt. Taichi clasped his hands and lifted them to the skies to thank whatever god up there let them win. It was their first win in such a long time.

WarGreymon and the other digimon were flying towards them. Hikari leapt into Angewomon's arms. Matt grabbed Metal Garurumon around the neck and hugged the metal hound tightly. They all climbed up on the digimons' backs or into their arm, Metal Garurumon carried both Jyou and Matt. Zudomon was already at the beach. The Seadramon were retreating.

Taichi took a deep breath. He never had felt so relieved. They were passing the Destiny Tree and flying towards the city. They dove down low to reunite Jyou with Zudomon. They were about to head into the town in victory when the sound of thousands of claps of thunder exploded behind them. Tai and the others turned and watched as the Destiny Tree shattered into thousands of wooden shards.

"No…" Tai whispered as he watched the branches of the tree fall into the ocean, burning. The wind swirled upward, dragging the sea into the sky. "NO!"

Tai glared through the smoke of the tree, through the twisting, windborne shrapnel.

"We need to get out of here," Matt yelled from Metal Garurumon.

"It's dangerous to stay outside like this!" Hikari shouted to her brother.

"Everyone, get back to the TV…" Taichi started.

He was cut off by a sweeping orange beam of energy that sliced through him and WarGreymon, disintegrating him and the digimon. The others gasped for a few seconds in shock before the beam sliced past them, doing the same to them.

888

Miyako screamed as a plank of wood flew towards her head. A giant, pink shuriken buzzed over her head and diced the plank apart. The wind swirled around Miyako, trying to drag her into the air, towards the inky blackness of the vortex in the sky. Papers, leaves, yard tools, unattached sheds were all tumbling towards the hungry maw of the vortex. A huge parasol swooped into Miyako, out of nowhere, striking her, knocking her off balance and hooking her shirt. She screamed as the huge umbrella yanked her into the air. Suddenly a pair of strong hands grabbed Miyako by the waist. The parasol tremored and then fell apart. Miyako looked back and smiled at Silphymon's determined face.

"Thanks!" Miyako shouted over the howling wind. "What the heck happened? I thought the Seadramon were running away!"

"I don't know," Silphymon said as he pushed against the wind current.

"Where's Iori?" Miyako shouted as she looked around. She then saw Shakkoumon standing tall over the buildings.

"There are still evacuees to get out of town," Silphymon said, dodging aerial flotsam and jetsam tumbling towards him.

"We need to help him…" Miyako said over the wind.

Silphymon twisted, turning his back to the wind and was preparing to dive towards Shakkoumon's position. A bright streak of orange sliced from off shore. It cut through the street they'd been using to evacuate the citizens of the town. Miyako screamed as she watched Shakkoumon atomized right in front of her.

"WHAT WAS THAT!?" Miyako screamed as threads of smoke slithered upwards. "Where'd Shakkoumon go!? Iori was with him! Oh no! IORI!"

"Hold yourself together Miyako, calm down!" Silphymon grunted as he tried to hold the flailing girl. "We have to get out of here, that beam could fire on us next! We have to get to Koushiro, and warn him!"

888

There was a knock at the door. Daisuke frowned and pressed the pillow tighter against his head. The knocking didn't cease. Another round of rapping and then another.

"Damn it Jun! I told you, I don't feel good!" Daisuke leapt up from bed and glared at the door.

"Daisuke, it's me, Ken," The voice was small, mild and almost meek, it was definitely Ken's.

"Don't come in, I don't feel well," Daisuke shouted as he curled up slightly.

"You should know by now, that you can't lie to me, Daisuke Motomiya," Ken said in a firmer, but still mild voice. "I'm going to come in."

"Don't you'll get…" The door swung open and Ken walked in.

The boy looked out of place in the material cacophony that was Daisuke's room. His neat gray uniform, straight dark hair, his briefcase, all looked like they belonged in an office not a bedroom with a nearly knee high pile of dirty socks.

Ken didn't say anything about the mess. His eyes glanced over the piles and, with uncanny instincts, found the desk chair, picking his way through the room, with Wormmon scuttling along behind him. He gently moved clothes and old homework assignments piled on the seat of the chair and moved them to the floor in neat piles. Daisuke always marveled at Ken, even his messes were clean.

"Strange, it doesn't smell like your sick," Ken said as he looked Daisuke in the eyes. "We just learned in school about how sweat releases toxins…and how that can affect the smell."

"So, I don't smell sick," Daisuke frowned. He wasn't in the mood for visitors. "That doesn't mean you get to barge in. I could've been naked!"

"So?" Ken said, crossing his legs and leaning back in his chair. "You don't have anything under your clothes that would be overly surprising or interesting to me."

"Well, you know…there are a lot of…perverts out there," Daisuke frowned and looked down at his bed indignantly.

"Yes, I did hear from Hikari about that girl in your class," Ken smirked. He looked down and watched as DemiVeemon and Wormmon played quietly near a pile of board game pieces. "Strange how people misinterpret close friendships."

"Well, who sent you?" Daisuke asked, not making eye contact. He didn't have to; he knew the impassive look Ken was giving.

"No one," Ken said; he coughed quietly. "I came because I was worried about you. Everyone is. You've been acting odd. Why?"

"It's nothing," Daisuke said, adamantly. He sat in bed and hugged his knees against his chest. "I'm just tired. I don't feel well…"

"It's understandable if you're scared," Ken said. He leaned forward. "I'm scared, too, Daisuke."

"I just don't know what to do," Daisuke said. He rested his chin on his knees. "Why should we even try anymore? We simply don't have the firepower to make a dent. We put our neck out there and we get it chopped off every time." Daisuke closed his eyes. "How can I go out there and ask you guys to keep fighting when I know it won't make any difference?"

"You don't know if it won't make a difference," Ken said, sitting forward. "We've been in similar situations before. Remember Black WarGreymon…"

"That was totally different," Daisuke looked to Ken. "Completely different."

"We can't give up though," Ken reached out and touched Daisuke's arm.

"What difference does it make," Daisuke pulled away from Ken's outreached hand. "The more we fight them the more they win…eventually they're going to get tired of us and just swat us."

"Until then we have to keep fighting them," Ken scooted out of his chair and slipped himself over to the edge of Daisuke's bed. Daisuke shrank back, mostly because he didn't want to deal with people, and secondly, because Ken was in bed with him and that alone was awkward.

"It's pointless!" Daisuke said, leaning against his bedroom wall.

"Even if the act is pointless the sentiment isn't." Ken said. He reached out and grabbed one of Daisuke's hands. "If we stop fighting, the Dragons will have won a massive morale battle. The function of the digi-destined isn't just to fight the evils of the world but to give the digimon an incentive to fight as well. Someone has to stand up to the Dragons; someone has to say, 'No! No more'. Someone has to fight the fight and someone has to be the mouse in front of the lion."

"Even if the mouse gets pummeled into paste?" Daisuke said looking at Ken's hand.

"Especially if the mouse gets pummeled, because someone has to show everyone else that they aren't afraid of losing, that they are willing to fight the impossible fight," Ken said. His blue eyes rose and locked on Daisuke's brown eyes. "If you guys hadn't stuck with me…I could've been lost forever. I thought this world was a lost cause and you guys showed me that there was still something there to cherish. Think of the digimon in the Digital World, watching as their cities, villages, farms and families are being uprooted and massacred by the Dragons. They probably think that the Digital World is a lost cause…but suppose they see a group of people saying 'Hang on, we're not done yet. We're still alive, we're still willing to fight,' what do you think that'd do?"

"Daisuke," DemiVeemon had hopped up on the bed with Wormmon. "Daisuke, I don't want to sit by and watch my home get destroyed."

Daisuke leaned over and scooped DemiVeemon up. "I know, buddy. I just don't know how we're going to stop them…"

Ken's D-terminal started to beep in his pocket, so did Daisuke's. Ken sat up and reached into his pants' pocket and produced the small device. He flipped it open. The boy read the message and then looked at Daisuke, and then he read it again.

"Daisuke…" Ken said, not looking at him. "We need to go to the Digital World, now. Taichi, Jyou, Kari, Takeru, Yamato and Iori have disappeared…"

Daisuke looked at Ken, "What do you mean?"

"Miyako just says that the Dragons somehow destroyed the Destiny Tree and soon after that the others started disappearing, the only ones left are her and Koushiro," Ken said.

"Daisuke?" DemiVeemon looked up at him.

Daisuke couldn't move. His muscles felt tense. His skin was crawling and his stomach was tumbling in his gut. He was so terrified. They were gone, Ken said disappeared but Daisuke wasn't so stupid as to know what the blue eyed boy was suggesting.

Suddenly a fire flitted to life in Daisuke's heart. The boy clenched a fist. His teeth gritted against each other. He looked to Ken.

"This is the last straw!" Daisuke said as he turned. Ken got up as Daisuke jumped out of bed. "You can kick my butt all you want, but if you lay a finger on my friends…if you hurt them…"

He stomped across the room and picked up his D-terminal and D-3, pocketing them. Daisuke then walked toward his bedroom door.

"Where are you going?" Ken asked, as he picked up DemiVeemon. Wormmon found his way to Ken's shoulder.

"Isn't it obvious?" Daisuke shouted back to Ken as he opened the door. "I'm getting my shoes. We're going to the Digital World!"

888

"This is bad," Miyako said for the one billionth time as she paced back and forth. Hawkmon was looking up at his partner.

"I know this is bad," Koushiro said as his fingers pattered on his laptop's keyboard.

"Then why are you just sitting there at that computer!" Miyako shouted, glaring at the back of Koushiro's cinnamon-haired head. "We should be out there!"

"Doing what, exactly?" Koushiro asked as he stopped typing and looked back at Miyako. "We don't even know where the attack came from, or what the heck it was. For that matter we don't even know if they are really…"

"THEY DISINTEGRATED IN FRONT OF MY EYES!" Miyako screamed spreading out her arms wide as if presenting a banquet. "What more do you need?"

"It's not that odd in the Digital World," Koushiro said, turning back to his laptop. "They could've been transported to another plane of existence, or simply uploaded to another portion of the Digital World. Since I don't know where the beam came from, and couldn't properly analyze it due to the vortex's interference, we don't know its properties. There is nothing to get worried about."

"How can you be so cold!?" Miyako was nearly shrieking now. Tentomon and Hawkmon winced at the shrill voice. Datamon was cowering in a corner. "Those were your friends! And they've just been de-atomized! Deleted! Destroyed! KILLED!"

"We don't know that!" Koushiro said, slamming a closed fist on the desk in front of him. Koushiro turned his head slightly back to Miyako. "I am perfectly aware of what we saw. I prefer not to get worked up about it until we have something more substantial, and right now I want to see if I can't get something up on the radar systems. If I can find out where the beam came from, or what shot it, I can figure out what happened to the others, and reverse it!"

"Izzy!" Tentomon buzzed forward and pointed. A pair of radar signatures was approaching from the south.

"That's probably Daisuke and Ken," Koushiro said, turning back to his computer, "Miyako, Hawkmon, go out there and wait for them. Explain to them what has happened when they get here."

"What are you going to do?" Miyako asked in a huff.

"Keep trying to get a read from the radar," Koushiro replied as he started typing again.

Miyako walked off, grumbling to herself. Hawkmon followed her, running behind the lavender haired girl. Koushiro frowned as he looked at the mostly blank radar screen. Even after the vortex had disappeared there were still no readings out there.

"Could it be that the attacker is out of range of the radar?" Tentomon asked as he hovered behind Koushiro's head.

"The radar system is using the Doppler, it has a range of over a hundred miles," Datamon said walking away from the corner he had been hiding in.

"Given the size and power of the beam, the attacker has to be insanely huge, or very close," Koushiro said as he narrowed his eyes looking for the littlest speck of evidence. "In other words it should show up!"

He continued to stare at the radar screen, leaning in. He'd done system checks, redone them and then triple done them, the radar and Doppler systems were working. The computer systems were working. He couldn't figure out why there wasn't an echo.

"So they just disappeared?" Koushiro sat up at the sound of Daisuke's voice.

"Yes, the beam just disintegrated them!" Miyako's voice was still shrill, still angry. He swiveled on the chair and watched as Miyako, Daisuke and Ken walked in, Miyako pointed at Koushiro. "And he's been at that computer since I got up here."

"We should go and look; Taichi and the others could've escaped," Daisuke said to Koushiro.

"And how would you plan to find them in all that rubble?" Koushiro asked.

"Well, we'd use the D-3…" Daisuke said lifting his blue digivice.

Koushiro blinked. He'd been so busy fidgeting with the computers and the radar he completely forgot about the detect function of his D-3. He swung back around and grabbed his D-3, which was lying on the desk.

"I don't believe it," Koushiro said as he looked at the screen. Six red dots were glowing softly on the screen. Koushiro jumped up and pointed the D-3 at Miyako. "They're alive! The beam wasn't a weapon, it was a transporter! The others are still alive!"

"Thank god," Miyako said restraining a cheer.

The others were on the edge of the D-3's range but they were there. Koushiro quickly grabbed a USB wire and plugged his D-3 into his laptop, and with a few keystrokes and mouse clicks he was overlaying the information of the D-3 with the radar map. However, this didn't help.

Koushiro looked at the screen blankly. "But that's impossible there's nothing there…"

"What do you mean?" Daisuke pushed forward and looked.

"There isn't anything there," Koushiro said quietly. "Either Tai and the others are hanging out in midair somewhere or…"

Koushiro's computer chimed, announcing an email, and a caricature of Gennai appeared on the screen. Koushiro absentmindedly opened the email and his computer whirred to life as a massive file opened on his screen.

Koushiro's speakers then suddenly came to life, "Koushiro, there is a ship coming your way. A very big and powerful ship, developed by the demon lords, and constructed by the dragons. We aren't sure of its full capabilities but we were able to get a hold of its plans. I've earmarked several important systems and floor plans, for you."

Koushiro looked at the images on the screen. Some were highlighted in red. He clicked on them. They were mostly engine plans and exhaust systems or power conduits, but his eyes fell on one that seemed particularly pertinent, labeled 'stealth shielding'.

"Well?" Daisuke said looking over Koushiro's shoulder.

"I know why we can't see them," Koushiro said as he turned around, nearly knocking Daisuke to the ground. "Their ship has armor plating on it that's emitting a signal that cancels out electromagnetic transmissions."

"No wonder the radar isn't picking it up," Datamon said as he walked forward.

"And why we can't see it, visible light's an electromagnetic wave," Ken said as he looked out the window to see an empty sky over the ocean.

"But the same idea can be used to disable their stealth technology," Koushiro jumped up and ran to the other side of the room. "Datamon, mind if I use the TV station's transmitter?"

"No, not at all," the mechanical digimon said.

"What are you doing!?" Miyako yelped, "Shouldn't we going out there to save the others!?"

"We have to see what we're up against first," Koushiro said as he started flipping switches. He ran back to his laptop and scanned the file labeled 'stealth shielding'. "There it is…"

"There what is?" Daisuke asked as he looked back at the computer as Koushiro rushed past him.

"The armor is emitting a signal to dampen the radar," Koushiro explained as he frantically looked over the transmitter controls. "We can send a signal to nullify their radar dampeners…"

"What's sauce for the goose…" Ken said as he made an ah-ha voice.

"Is sauce for the gander," Koushiro finished as he flipped the final switch.

The room buzzed as the transmitter came to life. Koushiro ran to his computer and minimized all the files from Gennai's e-mail. Koushiro leaned back and just stared at the screen.

"It's huge..." Daisuke whispered, as he looked at the red triangle.

"According to the scale, it's almost a mile and a half long, tip to base," Koushiro said. His hands intertwined and he rested them in his lap.

"Look, you can see it," Miyako said pointing out the window.

The others looked up. The ship was hanging out there, almost twenty miles away. It looked like a gray pyramid, lying on its side. The surface looked bumpy, like a city skyline at a distance.

"They are there?" Tentomon asked, shuddering slightly.

"Yeah, right in the middle of it," Koushiro said, frowning.

888

They were going up a lift. Taichi was still woozy as were the others. Their digimon had been confiscated before they even knew what was going on. The beam seemed to have de-digivolved them before rematerializing them so they had had no chance to resist their capture.

Taichi looked over to his escorts. They were dragons, covered in gray-green military armor. The four of them carried huge spears. The dragons looked at them with one mechanical eye and one organic eye.

Iori had shouted out that they were SEALSdramon when they had materialized and the dragons had pointed their sparking spears in the children's faces. The dragons then had called up to the 'bridge' and were told to bring the humans up and to take their partners to the 'sorting room' to be processed.

The lift hummed to a stop and the SEALSdramon pushed the digi-destined out of the elevator. Taichi and the others staggered onto a giant open space. There were other SEALSdramon, accompanied by six Tankdramon and several Commandramon. One of the Tankdramon, a creature that looked like a tank with a prism shaped head painted with the facial attributes of a dragon, rolled up to them and pointed its energy cannons at Taichi. A probe slid out of the front of the Tankdramon's body and swept a fan of energy over Taichi and then the other digi-destined.

"They – are – harmless!" the Tankdramon said and it swiveled around and rolled away. "Bring – them – for-ward. They – will – be – sub-jected to – the mental- prooobe!"

The children were pushed forward towards a column in the middle of the 'bridge'. It had twelve slots, shaped like human bodies, with a helmet that was affixed to the upper portions of each slot.

"You will – en-ter!" one of the SEALSdramon announced pushing Hikari towards one of the slots.

"Hey!" Taichi wasn't going to let his sister get pushed around and he jumped for the SEALSdramon. The dragon had lightning fast reflexes and swatted Taichi backwards with his spear, knocking the teen to the floor.

"You – will o-bey! Resis-tance – is – use-less!" The SEALSdramon said as he looked to the other children. "O-BEY!"

The children gulped and started towards the machine when suddenly the enter room started to flash red and blue. A klaxon went off. The Tankdramon swiveled around and the SEALSdramon looked up.

"A-LERT! A-LERT! WE – ARE – DE-TECTED!" shouted one of the Tankdramon.

"SIG-NAL – COM-ING FROM GEN-ER-AL TRANS-MITTER – IN CITY!" Reported another one of the mechanical digimon.

"It's Izzy," Yamato whispered.

The Tankdramon swung around and pointed at the blonde, "IT IS THE DIGI-DESTINED!?"

"OPEN COMMUUUNICATION CHANNEL!" demanded one of the six Tankdramon. "THE HU-MANS WILL COME FORWARD! FORWARRRRD!"

The SEALSdramon pushed the digi-destined next to the six Tankdramon who congregated in front of a giant, holographic screen. The image on the screen flickered and finally revealed Izzy, Miyako, Ken and Daisuke in what looked like a TV production room.

A Tankdramon rolled forward. The lights on top of its head blinked as it spoke, "I – will – talk – to your – lead-er!"

"I guess that's me," Daisuke said, walking forward and sitting in a chair. He was wearing his flame decaled jacket. "What do you want?"

"The – Dra-mon strat-e-gem – nears completion! The – in-vasion is al-most read-y!" The Tankdramon announced, almost haughtily with its grating mechanical voice. It raised its energy cannons at the screen, "You – will not – intervene!"

"Oh, and what's stopping us?" Daisuke retorted, leaning back in his chair and glaring at the Tankdramon.

"We – have your – ac-comp-lices!" the Tankdramon said, swiveling around and pointing its weapons at Taichi and the others. "You – will o-bey! OR THEY WIIL BE EX-TERRRRMINATED!"

Tai and the others gulped as they looked up at Daisuke. His face was stony, almost emotionless. He was the picture of calm; the only indication of any emotion was the slight fire of hate that twinkled in his eyes.

"No…" Daisuke said.

Taichi and the others almost fainted. Ken, Izzy, Miyako and their digimon, even Veemon looked up at Daisuke like he'd just shot a baby. The Tankdramon even swiveled back around and then the prism that was painted to look like the face of a dragon hissed and opened up, revealing a gooey-skinned, blue draconic form. It was a pustuled mutant, dripping in blue slime. Its golden eyes glared up at the screen, at Daisuke.

"Ex-plain – yourself!" the beast demanded, its voice gurgling through the speakers.

"I said, 'No!'" Daisuke shot back, sitting up slightly.

"WHAT IS THE MEAN-ING OF THIS NE-GA-TIVE!?" one of the other Tankdramon shouted, rolling forward.

"It means, I'm not letting you hurt them, you aren't invading anything, I'm stopping you!" Daisuke replied, he put his hands on the desk in front of him.

"BUT THEY WILL BE DE-STROYED!" the Tankdramon shouted.

"NO!" Daisuke jumped up from his seat, knocking the chair to the floor. His eyes were burning now. "Because this is what's going to happen! We're going to save them – we're going to go into your ship and yank them from your slimy little claws! And then we're going to blow up your little ship! And then, just to finish you off, we're going to your masters and we're going to kick their collective tails until they are nothing but digitamas!"

"But – you - are out-num-bered, you – are – un-der-pow-ered, you – have – no – plan!" The opened Tankdramon shrieked, trying desperately to rationalize Daisuke's reaction.

"So? That's never stopped me before," Daisuke said, glaring at the Tankdramon. His eyes then rose and looked at the captured digi-destined, "Guys, don't worry, we're coming to get you!"

Daisuke then leaned forward and pressed a button and the holographic screen went black. The Tankdramon swiveled around and started to shout out orders.

"THE DIGI-DESTINED ARE IN-I-TIATING HOS-TILE AC-TIONS!" screeched the opened Tankdramon.

"THE – STRAT-E-GEM MUST ADVANCED!" shrilled another Tankdramon. "ADVANCE ON THE CITY!"

"THE DIGI-DESTINED WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" screamed a third Tankdramon.

"EXTERMINATE!" echoed the calls down the corridor of the ship. Each Tankdramon, SEALSdramon and Commandramon adding to the sharp mantra, until the entire mile and a half of the ship was shuddering with the battle cry. "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTEEEERRRRMIIIINAAAATE!"

** 888**

**AN: As Rusty Davies says…steal from the best…**


	15. The Mouse in Front of the Lion Part 2

**I don't own digimon – or the Tankdramons' characterization**

**The Mouse in Front of the Lion**

**Pt 2**

**888**

The Tankdramon were scrambling. They chattered back and forth. Taichi and the others had been herded into a corner and a pair of SEALSdramon was stationed on them. One of the Tankdramon came up to them.

"You – are – hu-man! You – know how they think! You will pre-dict their actions!" The Tankdramon said as it rolled forward.

"Oh yeah, like we could tell you what Daisuke's up to." Takeru said, rolling his eyes.

"And it's not like we'd tell you even if we could." Iori added.

"PRE-DICT! PRE-DICT! PRE-DICT!" the Tankdramon shouted, rolling forward and pointing its energy cannons forward.

"Non-Dramon – di-gi-mon de-tected," announced one of the SEALSdramon. It turned to the Tankdramon menacing Taichi's group and added, "in – flight!"

"De-sig-nation, Di-no-Beemon." Another SEALSdramon reported.

"Launch – miss-iles! EXTERMINATE!" screeched the tank.

"You can't!" Hikari yelped. "That'll kill him…"

"You – have – pre-dicted – cor-rectly," the Tankdramon stated and then turned away from the children. "SEALS-dra-mon – u-nits – 10051 and 10048 – take – the – pri-son-ers to hold-ing cells."

"We – o-bey!" the two SEALSdramon guarding the children saluted and swept around, pointing their spears at the children. "You – will – mooove! DO NOT AT-TEMPT ES-CAPE! IT – IS USE-LESS!"

The children walked forward with the SEALSdramon pointing their weapons at their backs. They looked up at the view screen and watched as thousands of missiles poured forward from the ship.

888

Ken was hunched over, Daisuke was behind him with Veemon, Miyako was behind Daisuke with Hawkmon and Koushiro, with his laptop, was behind her with Tentomon. DinoBeemon's wings thrummed like a helicopter's rotors as the large tyrant bee charged through the air towards the massive ship hanging in the air.

"Ken…" DinoBeemon spoke up in his deep thrumming voice. "We have an incoming…make that a lot of incomings…"

Thousands of red flares appeared on the edge of Ken's vision.

"Don't worry, we expected this." Koushiro shouted over the sound of DinoBeemon's wings.

"Are you really sure you want to do it?" DinoBeemon asked. The flares were growing brighter. "I've never done that before with passengers…"

"Don't worry, DinoBeemon!" Veemon said patting the green armor of the large bee.

"What we need to worry about is not getting fricasseed!" Tentomon's voice tremored loudly over the wing beats.

"Yes, do it before those things hit us." Hawkmon implored.

"Ok, ok!" DinoBeemon said as his body started to vibrate. "All you had to say was 'it was ok'!"

The world started to blur for the digi-destined as their atoms shook. A pink aura surrounded them. Their bones shuddered and their blood sloshed in their veins. DinoBeemon swooped and dipped and swept through the hail of missiles, his body vibrating at a speed where he could phase through the projectiles as they honed in on him. There were loud whooshing sounds and then the pink aura faded. Their vision still was blurry as their eyes vibrated residually in their skulls.

DinoBeemon turned around. The missiles were whistling towards the city.

"Irritant Buzz!" DinoBeemon fired a pulse of sonic energy after the missiles.

"That was…" Daisuke hit his own head to get the buzzing out of his skull.

"Prodigious…" Koushiro finished.

"Well, hold tight because we're going to do it again." Ken said as he looked at the ship's hull.

"We're what?" Miyako asked, but it was too late and the pink aura swarmed around the children as a hellish vibration started once more.

888

"A-LERT! A-LERT!" screeched the ship's PA system. "HOS-TILE FORCES HAVE PEN-ETRAT-ED HULL! ALL – DRA-MON – MAIN-TAIN DEFENSE STAT-US MAUVE!"

"Get 'em, Daisuke." Taichi whispered, clenching his hand into his fist.

"Si-lence!" One of the SEALSdramon behind him cuffed his neck. "Hu-man – dia-logue will cease!"

"Oh, you think you're so tough." Taichi said turning around.

"DO NOT FACE US!" The SEALSdramon put their hands on Taichi's shoulders and spun him back around.

"I'm not afraid of you," Taichi said, turning and glaring up at the red eye of the SEALSdramon. "You won't get away with this, Daisuke will stop you."

"Im-probable! The – in-truders are out-numbered, under-powered, out-strategized!" The SEALSdramon retorted. The dragon then pointed its spear at the children. "Con-tin-ue for-ward!"

Taichi didn't move for a second but the SEALSdramon jabbed Hikari in the back with the blunt end of his spear, pushing the girl forward. She yelped loudly at the strike.

"If – you – do – not move, she – will be – in-jured!" The other SEALSdramon said.

"Fine," Tai said, turning and starting to walk forward.

"Your – re-action – proves – our – hy-poth-e-sis." The SEALSdramon said as he marched behind the children. "You – are – weak! Your – love, your – friends, your re-liabity, they will – be-come our wea-pons! They – are – your – li-a-bil-ity!"

888

They'd phased through the ship's hull, through the decks and floors, diving into the heart of the machine, where Koushiro had said the engine room was. DinoBeemon made quick work of several of the SEALSdramon guarding the center column of the engine facility and landed, dropping the children and the other digimon off on one of the several bridges that attached to the central column.

"Ok, we don't have lots of time." Koushiro said as DinoBeemon flew off to engage more of the SEALSdramon guards. "We need a plan…"

"First we need to get the others free." Ken said.

"If I were the Tankdramon I'd have separated the kids from their digimon." Hawkmon said, lifting a finger.

"If we crash the ship, we won't have time to save both the digimon and the other digi-destined." Miyako said quickly.

"Yes we will." Daisuke said, he spun around and saw three Tankdramon enter the engine room. It was a massive, mostly empty cylindrical cavern that went up and down hundreds of decks, with small bridges connecting from the edges of the cylinder to the central shaft. "We'll split up into three teams, Miyako and Hawkmon, you get the other digimon free, Veemon and I will get Tai and the others, Ken, Koushiro, you and Tentomon and DinoBeemon try and set this thing up for an explosion."

"Are you nuts!?" Miyako shouted at Daisuke.

"It's a valid plan, this engine configuration is close to the kind that I used to use." Ken said as looked and frowned up at the huge central column in the middle of the empty shaft.

"These glyphs look similar to the ones I originally studied in our first trip to the Digital World." Koushiro said as he ran up to the column.

"Good then it's decided!" Daisuke said as he and Veemon ran down the bridge towards the huge doors that would give him access to the rest of the ship.

"Don't go running…" Miyako reached out after Daisuke and then dropped her arm to her side. "Oh why do I even bother?"

She turned and Koushiro and Ken were entering the column. Koushiro turned around and Tentomon digivolved into MegaKabuterimon.

"I suggest we get moving, Miyako." Hawkmon said as he looked up at the girl.

Miyako's D-Terminal beeped and she pulled the device from her pocket and looked at it. The screen glowed to life and a short message read, "sorry, forgot to give you the ship plans…here's where the captives are being held. The blinking dot is you, good luck, Koushiro."

The screen then flicked up a map with two black dots.

"Fine, let's go." Miyako said and a few seconds later her and Halsemon were diving off the bridge and down the shaft into the darkness below.

888

The Destined digimon looked up at their surroundings. It looked like a giant cargo bay. It was filled with digimon from the city. Several Commandramon and SEALSdramon guards were patrolling on catwalks above the digimon in the cargo bay below.

"I don't like the feel of this." Salamon said as she looked at the other digimon around her.

"What do you mean?" Gabumon looked at the poorly differentiated puppy-kitten.

"I've seen places like this before, but they weren't in ships." Salamon said as she looked at the others. "Myotismon had camps like this, where he kept digimon that resisted him."

"What happened?" Patamon asked as he looked around.

"He had all of the prisoners at the camp killed." Salamon said.

"We have to get out of here!" Agumon yelped looking around to the other digimon that were milling about.

"Shhh!" Salamon hissed. "If they know we know, they may destroy us first!"

"Well, we can't stay here." Armadillomon said as he looked up at a group of SEALSdramon that were looking at them.

"That much is obvious, but I doubt if they'll let us out if we ask nicely." Gomamon said as he looked over at the others.

"All di-gi-mon will – move – to – the – for-ward sec-tions of the room!" announced the SEALSdramon. "We – will – in-itiate pro-cess-ing! MOVE!"

"Great, well that's cut our time down." Gomamon grumbled as he looked at the other digimon filing into lines. "What's wrong with these guys!?"

"They are so scared they don't know what to do." Salamon said as she walked forward, "They're hoping that if they follow the directions they'll be allowed to live."

"We're going to get killed!" shouted Agumon loudly to the crowd.

"You have to fight back!" Gabumon shouted with his raspy voice. "If we fight together! We can get out of here!"

A murmur swept across the collected digimon. The air got uncomfortable as the other digimon looked up at their captors. The SEALSdramon and Commandramon looked down at the digimon in the hold.

"MOVE!" shouted one of the SEALSdramon, pointing his spear at the digimon. A bolt of energy built around the head of the spear and fired from the catwalk and exploded into a wall above the digimons' head. "DO NOT RE-SIST! RE-SISTANCE WILL BE MET WITH EX-TER-MMMMINATION!"

"If you don't resist they'll kill us anyways!" Gomamon shouted loudly to the crowd. "So it's up to you. You can either die fighting these guys or you can just lie down and let them kill you!"

"This – is – un-true!" announced the SEALSdramon. "We – wish not to de-stroy you! You will be – pro-cessed! Our ma-sters want sol-diers, not cas-ual-ties! You – will - be – pro-cessed! You – will – be – e-volved! You – will – be – made – in-to – Dra-mon – di-gi-mon! Those – in-ca-patible – will be re-formatted!"

"It's still death!" Patamon shouted, flapping his ear-wings and rising above the crowd. "Do you want to be under the control of the Great Dragons!? Never being allowed to have your own thoughts or feelings! Never knowing love or happiness! You'll be nothing more than puppets for the Great Dragons!"

"SI-LENCE! THIS DIS-CUSSION IS OVER! YOU WILL BE PROCESSED!" shouted the SEALSdramon. He pointed his spear forward and the other dragons followed suit.

"Baby Sling!" shouted a voice from somewhere in the crowd. One of SEALSdramon lurched backward as its red, mechanical eye was shot out by a metal ball bearing.

That's when it started, like a wave the digimon in the cargo hold launched into the fray, attacking their captors. The resistance was beginning from within. The SEALSdramon returned fire, warning shots over the captives' heads but their fear tactics weren't going to stop the incensed digimon there.

"Well, we started it, we better join in!" Agumon said as she scrambled forward and opened his mouth, releasing his Pepper Breath.

The others leapt forward releasing their repertoires of attacks on the dragons. Gomamon's Marching Fish exploded from a pipe knocking one of the shocked SEALSdramon down into the group of hostile digimon, to never be seen again. Gabumon and Agumon picked off Commandramon as Salamon and Patamon tried to shoot the spears out of the SEALSdramons' hands.

The 'lions' were going to get a run for their money if they thought these 'mice' were going to roll over and die for them.

888

"Amazing," Koushiro said as he looked up the middle of the cylindrical room he and Ken entered. The walls were glowing with a yellow light and the script on the walls flared with red light, "this is almost exactly like the ruins on File Island."

"This is the power core." Ken said as he walked up to an orb set on a pedestal in the middle of the room.

"We need to figure out how these things synch up, we can't just go in erasing and drawing in new command protocols." Koushiro said as he sat down and took out his laptop. "We have to time our sabotage just right or we'll get trapped in here with the Tankdramon."

The cylinder rumbled and shook. Ken looked over to Koushiro. "Well, we don't have an infinite amount of time."

"I know, so let's get cracking." Koushiro said as he pulled a cable out of his backpack and hooked his D-3 up to his computer. He then looked around, "See if you can find an access port. This will go a lot faster if I have my computer doing the decoding of the inscriptions."

"Ok," Ken said as he looked around. He found a small outlet at the base of the pedestal. "Hey, would this do?"

"Perfect!" Koushiro said as he jumped towards the access port and plugged his computer into it. "Ok, now, I'll just see where Daisuke and Miyako are, and we'll be in business."

888

Daisuke held firmly onto the large shoulder spikes on Raidramon's back as the black armored digimon bounded through the halls of the ship. They'd met a little resistance along the way, but it seemed that there was some sort of disturbance elsewhere and a majority of the security was diverted elsewhere.

Daisuke looked at his D-3 and watched as a mass of red blips got closer. They should be at the end of the hall or at least around the corner.

"Not far now Raidramon!" Daisuke shouted.

"HALT!" a bluish energy burst exploded in front of Raidramon and the dragon slid to a stop, turning around.

Three SEALSdramon were standing in front of them. Their spears pointed at Daisuke. Raidramon slowly lifted one of his feet.

"I SAID HALT!" A pulse of energy flew from the spear and exploded into the floor.

"Damn it…" Daisuke hissed under his breath. "We were so close."

"We're not done yet." Raidramon said.

"You – will sur-rend-er!" The SEALSdramon said as it took a step forward. "The di-gi-mon will be pro-cessed! The hu-man will be ex-terminated!"

"I don't think so." Raidramon said rearing his horned head up. Sparks flickered across his lightning-shaped horn. "Thunder BLAST!"

The lightning arced, striking the lead SEALSdramon. The bolt then hopped across the other five digimon. A field bubbled around them.

"DE-FENSES IM-PAIRED! SE-VERE ELEC-TRO-MAG-NET-IC INTER-FER-ENCE!" Screeched the six SEALSdramon out of synch with each other. "SYS-TEM OVER-LOAD EM-IN-ENT!"

Raidramon turned and leapt away as the six SEALSdramon collapsed on the ground, convulsing. Daisuke looked up at the end of the corridor. They were nearly there.

"Hold on guys, I'm coming!" Daisuke said as he clutched tightly to Raidramon's shoulders.

888

The SEALSdramon pushed the digi-destined forward. The klaxons from earlier had been shut off. Hikari looked over to Taichi. He was glaring at the floor, his hands dug deep into his hip pockets. Maybe she should try fighting back. The only reason they were in this predicament was because the SEALSdramon had snatched her arm and dragged her away from the others and used her as a hostage.

She wasn't some damsel in distress. She didn't need to be saved, although she wouldn't mind if Daisuke appeared with an army of digimon just about now. She allowed a tiny smile to appear on her lips. If Daisuke actually did pull this stunt off and save them all, ended up blowing up this ship and somehow came around to defeating the Great Dragons she'd have to give him a kiss. She giggled slightly at the thought of seeing his face. He'd turn bright red and probably faint.

The scene played in her mind as it played she giggled even more, and before she even knew it she was laughing to herself. The others stopped walking and were looking at her, as if she'd lost her mind, and maybe she had just a little. She looked at them and laughed at their puzzled glances. TK's face was simply adorable, somewhere between terrified and amused.

"What – is – the – mean-ing – of – this?" asked one of the SEALSdramon as it pushed forward. "Ex-plain!"

"We don't know." TK shouted up at the dragon.

"It could be a stress reaction." Jyou said as he walked over to Hikari. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine." Hikari said trying to cover her giggles with her hand. "It's just so funny…"

"I don't see what's so funny." Yamato said with a frown.

"If Daisuke pulls this off…" Hikari started but she broke out laughing. "He'd faint…"

"Hikari?" Taichi said looking at his sister. "What are you talking about?"

"If he saves us, I should give him a kiss," Hikari whispered to Taichi, with a smile on her face. She started to giggle again. "He'd faint…and knowing his luck, he'd probably fall on top of Miyako and then she'd give him a smack."

"I – do – not – under-stand!" the SEALSdramon snarled.

"Yeah, neither do we." TK said as he looked to Hikari and then to Taichi.

"She – is de-fect-ive! She – will be – ex-terminated!" The other SEALSdramon guarding them said, pointing its spear at Hikari. The girl looked at the glowing spearhead and laughed even louder.

"Daisuke better hurry!" Hikari giggled looking at the sizzling arrow pointed in her face.

"Don't do it!" Taichi said taking a step forward. "You hurt her, and you'll lose your bargaining chip!"

"She – is – de-fect-ive, she – is – slow-ing us down! SHE – WILL – BE – EX-TERMINATED!" shouted the SEALSdramon.

"Now hold on, just a minute!" shouted a voice down the hall. The voice was soon matched to a body, well two bodies. One was Raidramon. The other was Daisuke, riding on the dragon's back. "Don't you want to get a hold of me first!?"

"YOU ARE AN IN-TRUDER! YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE DRA-MON!" shouted the two SEALSdramon as the lifted their spears, pointing them at Daisuke and Raidramon.

"Guys get down!" Daisuke shouted as he and Raidramon braced themselves.

"EX-TERMINATE!" shouted the SEALSdramon as their spears flared.

"GET DOWN!" Daisuke shouted. The children dove for the floor as the SEALSdramon opened fire.

Raidramon leapt over the bursts of energy and swiped his head around. "THUNDER BLAST!"

The two SEALSdramon flew backward as a pair of lightning bolts slammed into the chest and arched across their bodies. The two cybernetic dragons screeched as they crumpled onto the ground. Raidramon landed in front of the other digi-destined.

"Come on, we haven't a lot of time, Ken and Koushiro are trying to set the ship to blow up!" Daisuke said as he looked down at the other children. "Miyako is going to go get your digimon."

"What about the other digimon?" Iori asked as he ran up to Daisuke.

"Other digimon?" Daisuke said, blinking down at the little boy.

"Yeah, the Tankdramon picked them up with us." Iori said as he looked up at the brown haired boy.

"We'll deal with that when we get ourselves sorted," Daisuke said as he pulled Raidramon around. "We're going back to where Koushiro and Ken are. Follow me!"

Raidramon bounded off with the children chasing after the boy and his digimon.

888

"The – cap-tured – di-gi-des-tined – have – been – freeeeeed!" announced one of the Tankdramon on the bridge. It swiveled around and rolled forward to a set of controls. A probe extended from its chassis. "All – dra-mon, this – is your – com-manding – of-ficer! A group – of – hu-mans are – free – in the ship! All forces con-verge – on – deck 187! EXTERMINATE THE HU-MANS! EXTERMINATE!"

It glided back around and looked at the other Tankdramon.

"We – shall – cap-ture – them!" announced one of the mechanical digimon.

"Ad-vance!" commanded the first Tankdramon as the others rolled past. It turned and followed them.

888

Miyako and Halsemon were running down a hall. They'd flown down some hundred deck levels before reaching the right deck, and now they were running to a huge set of heavy, metal doors that lead into the main cargo bay.

They were nearly there when the giant door swooshed open and thousands of digimon poured forward. Halsemon skidded to a halt as the tidal wave of Rookies rushed towards them. Miyako quickly jumped on the gryphon's back and Halsemon flew upwards.

"Wait! Hey!" Miyako shouted down to the digimon running past. "We're here to save you! Get back in the cargo bay!"

"Miyako! Over here!" Patamon's voice shouted out from the mob and the bat-winged guinea pig flew out of the fray.

"We've come to get you!" Miyako shouted back to the guinea pig. She looked at all the digimon running under Halsemon. "Great, Koushiro was going to drive this thing into a mountain!"

The digimon tide halted and as one all the digimon looked up at Halsemon.

"Crash it!?" the digimon shouted up to Miyako. "But we'll get crushed!"

"Then get back in the cargo bay!" Miyako said, pointing back to the giant room at the far end of the corridor.

"But we just escaped!" the digimon said, all at once.

"We need the big teleporter in the cargo bay. There isn't enough time to evacuate you all one at a time!" Miyako shouted, straining her pointer finger towards the cargo bay. "Koushiro and Ken will be here soon! We just have to be patient! We're getting you all out of here safely, I promise!"

The digimon mumbled for a couple of minutes and then slowly filed back into the cargo bay. Halsemon landed and the destined digimon ran up to Miyako.

"Where's Tai?" Agumon shouted, nearly jumping up on Halsemon.

"Daisuke is getting your partners, don't worry!" Miyako said patting Agumon's snout. "We just need to go and wait for them to get here. Everything is under con…"

"En-e-my – De-tected!" a metallic voice shouted from behind Halsemon and Miyako. A stream of striped energy exploded above Halsemon.

"Tankdramon!" Salamon yelped as the hulking metal cased dragon rolled into view.

"Get back in the cargo bay! Now!" Miyako shouted as she turned. "Halsemon…"

The gryphon turned around and fired a pair of lasers back at the dragon and then leapt into the air flying above the Rookie digimon. The Tankdramon shouted and fired a few more blasts of energy after the gryphon. Halsemon dove into the cargo bay after the other destined digimon. Miyako leapt from the gryphon and dove fore the control pad and pushed a button.

The heavy metal doors swooshed shut as the Tankdramon opened fire again. Halsemon swept around and blew off the control pad, effectively locking the door behind them. The cargo bay pulsed with the resounding gonging of the Tankdramon's firepower against the heavy doors. Miyako leaned against the door and slid to the floor, looking at all of the digimon that were sealed in the room with her.

"What are we going to do, Miyako?" Halsemon asked as he looked up at the door.

"We need to seal this place off first!" Miyako said as the door shuddered under the Tankdramon's firepower. "If we have to, you'll digivolve to Silphymon and we'll hold them off as best we can."

Halsemon nodded and reverted to Hawkmon. The little hawk looked at Miyako's worried face. "Don't worry, Miyako, Daisuke will arrive soon."

"I hope so." Miyako said as she listened to the door shudder.

888

"We're nearly there guys!" Daisuke said as he looked up at a row of lift doors. "These things go sideways and up and down. We just need to get in one and type in the junction point and the deck number."

"Well, then let's get going," Taichi said, folding his arms over his chest.

"Ok, we want Deck 48, Junction 196," Daisuke said as he and the others ran to one of the lift doors. Daisuke hopped off of Raidramon and pressed two buttons, one that pointed down and another that pointed left. The door hissed open and Daisuke dove for the ground as energy pulses flew out of the lift.

"DO – NOT – MOVE!" the three SEALSdramon yelled as they charged forward.

"THUNDER BLAST!" Raidramon fired bolts of lightning against the three cybernetic dragons slamming them back into the lift.

"You – can-not es-cape!" shouted another voice. A group of Tankdramon was rolling up behind the digi-destined. "Do – not – re-sist – cap-ture!"

"You guys, run down to the next junction point!" Daisuke shouted, pointing down a hall that intersected with the corridor they were in. "Deck 48, Junction 196, remember that and you'll be fine!"

"What about you?" Iori said, looking at Daisuke as he ran next to Raidramon.

The other lift doors at the intersection opened a contingent of SEALSdramon exited, pointing their spears at the children.

"We'll hold these guys off, don't wait for us." Daisuke said, looking back to the other digi-destined.

"Thunder Blast!" Raidramon leapt forward releasing a wave of electricity at the oncoming Tankdramon and then spun around doing the same to the SEALSdramon, exiting the lifts.

The SEALSdramon screeched and retreated back into the lifts as the lightning sparked past them, but the heavily armored Tankdramon drove through the attack, and pointed their cannons at Raidramon. Raidramon leapt around as the tanks opened fire.

"There isn't time to wait," Daisuke insisted, glaring at the others. "I'll be ok, just go!"

The other children looked at Daisuke. Taichi finally nodded and goaded the others into running.

Hikari looked back to the flame-jacketed goggle-head. "You better get out of this alive, Daisuke!"

Daisuke looked up and smiled, waving and then the scene disappeared behind the bend of the corridor. Hikari looked forward. Everyone was too busy running for their lives to look worried, but Hikari felt worried enough for them all. She looked back again, hoping to see Raidramon and Daisuke charging behind them. After a few minutes of running they came upon another group of lifts.

"Here's the lift," Taichi said and he pressed the buttons Daisuke had pressed. The doors opened and the children held their breath, fortunately there weren't any surprises lurking inside and the children piled into the lift.

"He said Deck 48, Junction 196." Iori said with airy breaths.

Yamato quickly tapped the numbers into the key pad. The doors started to close.

"We have to wait for Daisuke." Hikari said looking at the others.

"He said not to wait." Taichi replied, looking at his sister.

"But he'll get massacred!" Hikari said, looking back at the closing door.

"He knew what he was doing when he told us to leave him." Jyou said, adjusting his glasses. "He wanted us to escape."

"Don't worry, those guys won't be able to lay a finger on Daisuke," TK said. He smiled at Hikari and put his thumbs up. "Daisuke wouldn't get beat by those guys. He's tougher than that."

"Daisuke did all of this to get us free, we can't exactly turn him down now." Yamato said as the door slid shut and the lift shuddered to life.

"You promised, Daisuke," Hikari said, putting her hands on the door. "You better come back or I'll never forgive you!"

888

"Ok, Ken, what's the read out on section 8?" Koushiro asked as he erased a three pronged glyph and replaced it with a spiral one.

"It's building to critical mass," Ken said as he looked at Koushiro's laptop. "This will give us a fifteen minute delay until major systems failure."

"And a major systems failure should take four minutes to cause a catastrophic failure and an explosion." Koushiro said tapping the butt end of the felt tipped pen against his chin. "Nineteen minutes total, that's cutting it close."

"Koushiro, my D-3 is detecting the others, they're coming this way." Ken shouted up to Koushiro.

The cinnamon haired boy ran over to Ken. "Good, we can get out of here then."

Koushiro said, as he closed his laptop. "I've looked over the teleport systems when we were in the city, it's pretty simple. I shouldn't have a problem getting us off the ship and somewhere safe."

Koushiro walked out of the engine room and out onto the large platform that bridged the cylindrical engine room to the rest of the vessel. The security forces had stopped attacking MegaKabuterimon and DinoBeemon a while ago. Probably due to Daisuke's freeing of Tai and the others or Miyako reaching the cargo bay, or even due to the fact that the two Ultimates had a defensive advantage and it was becoming increasingly obvious they weren't going to be dislodged from their positions.

Koushiro saw Taichi and Yamato running in front of the other digi-destined, and they were quickly approaching. A group of SEALSdramon charged out from one of the access points with the engine room but MegaKabuterimon neutralized them with one blast of his Horn Buster. The giant, red scarab swooped down and gathered up the digi-destined and then swung around, gathering up Koushiro and Ken.

"Where's Daisuke?" Ken asked almost instantly, Koushiro hadn't even noticed that the boy was missing yet.

"He's holding off the Tankdramon." Taichi said, giving Ken a look not to press the issue further.

"We need to get going, this ship is going to explode in…seventeen minutes," Koushiro said looking at his watch.

"But he doesn't know that it's going to explode!" Ken said as he looked back.

"Don't worry we'll think of something." Koushiro said as MegaKabuterimon spiraled downward towards the cargo bay.

888

The doors were giving in. Miyako hid behind Silphymon. The other destined digimon were standing on either side of Miyako, prepared to fight if the need arose. The door shuddered again this time exploding inward. The entire population of the cargo bay gasped as the Tankdramon rolled in, energy cannons pointed at them.

"SUR-RENDERRRRRR!" screeched the lead tank as it pulled away from the other dragons.

"Static Force!" Silphymon replied thrusting his cupped palms forward and releasing a stream of crimson energy.

"Pepper Breath!"

"Marching Fishes!"

"Blue Blaster!"

"Puppy Howling!"

"Boom Bubble!"

The Rookies leapt forward releasing streams of flames, ice, fish and pulses of sound and air at the tanks.

"Electroshock!" A squat, green Betamon bounded forward releasing a burst of electricity.

"Baby Sling!" A little monkey in a loin cloth swung a slingshot firing a ball bearing at the tanks.

"Boiling Bubble!" a group of Otamamon charged forward spewing steaming bubbles at their attackers.

"Nut Shooter!" Pink bodied, green topped plant bulbs, named Raramon, flew up, firing hardened seeds at the Tankdramon.

A pack of blue, bipedal dog wearing red boxing gloves leapt into the air and spun into blue tornados, "Rolling Upper!"

"Fox Leaf Arrowhead!" A golden, kitsune ran forward opening her hand a releasing a barrage of glowing, leaf-like arrowheads that exploded into the tanks.

Soon all the Rookies were opening up their attacks on the Tankdramon.

"Ex-term-in-ate." The lead Tankdramon said, calmly enduring the attacks.

It pointed its energy cannons at the digimon and fired killing twenty of the attackers in one strike. The Destined Digimon dove to the ground as the other Tankdramon opened fire. Silphymon growled and reached back forming two energy shurikens and flung them in front of himself deflecting several of the blasts.

Suddenly an orange blast of lightning exploded into the back of the Tankdramon, followed by a rumbling, throbbing noise that shook the other Tankdramon until a streak of pink energy sliced through them and flew up into the cargo bay materializing as DinoBeemon. MegaKabuterimon smashed through the walls of the cargo bay surrounding the door and smashed his clawed foot down on one of the Tankdramon. Koushiro and the others ran in between MegaKabuterimon's legs, past the smoldering remains of the dissolving Tankdramon.

"It's about time!" shouted Miyako as Koushiro ran past her.

"You have no idea!" Koushiro shouted back as he sprinted to a set of consuls. "We only have nine minutes to teleport everyone out of here!"

"And there are more Tankdramon coming," Jyou said as he turned.

"Then let's get about kicking some garbage can!" Gomamon said loping forward.

"Hey…where's Daisuke?" Patamon asked as he looked around.

"He's coming." Hikari said looking back into the corridor.

"Ok, I got the teleporters up." Koushiro said as he rushed about the consul. "I just hope I've can get us far enough away from the blast zone."

"Wait…blast zone!?" Miyako shouted, turning to Koushiro. "I thought we were going to crash the ship, not blow it up!"

"Really don't have the time to argue right now, Miyako." Koushiro said as he typed on the LCD control panel. "I can't get everyone out at once. I've set it to take all the hostage digimon in the cargo bay out first, then it'll lock onto digivices."

"What about Daisuke?" Miyako asked looking at Koushiro.

"Don't worry, there's still plenty of time." The cinnamon haired boy said, looking at his watch. "He's got a good seven minutes yet. All he has to do is get in range of the teleporter's sensors everything else is set up, and I've locked the controls."

There was a flash throughout the cargo bay and then the Rookie digimon were gone. The digi-destined looked around, even their destined digimon were gone.

"This is bad," Jyou gulped as he heard the clanging sound of marching SEALSdramon.

"No, worries." Koushiro said as he looked back at the consul. "Just give the teleport a chance to recharge…"

"We don't have time!" Miyako shouted.

A low level hum started to build in pitch in the cargo bay and then as the SEALSdramon entered the cargo bay there was a second flash.

Miyako staggered and fell to the ground, woozy. The world spun around her with tiny golden fireflies dancing in her eyes.

"Ugh…I feel…" Miyako started to say, but her stomach flip-flopped and she covered her mouth preemptively.

"It's the teleport…" Hikari said, huddled on the grass. "It'll pass…"

Miyako looked up. They were on a bluff overlooking the ocean. The Tankdramon ship was hovering over the city they had been protecting. It was flying lopsidedly with its starboard side dipping down as its port side rose upward.

"The stabilizers have started to fail." Ken said, looking back at Koushiro.

"What? No, no, that wasn't supposed to happen yet!" Koushiro looked at his watch. "If the stabilizers are failing then…Daisuke's only got four minutes!"

888

The ship was pitching forward and back. Daisuke tripped and fell.

"Stay – where – you are!" a Tankdramon shouted, firing a bolt of energy at Paildramon, who was attempting to protect Daisuke.

Paildramon smashed backward as the bolt pushed him into a wall. The dragon slumped against the wall and reverted to Veemon as Daisuke tried to run to him. SEALSdramon were closing in on him from the front and Tankdramon were rolling towards him from behind. Daisuke's jacket had torn – he'd snagged it on a piece of pipe that'd been burst by one of the Tankdramon's attacks. His hand had been burnt by a near miss, and his stumbles and falls had caused him to have a small cut on his forehead that had been steadily bleeding for the last ten minutes.

"You – will – not – es-cape!" The SEALSdramon were on him now, their spears were pointed at him.

"Yeah, well, neither will you." Daisuke said looking up at the SEALSdramon. "This place is about to fall out of the sky!"

"You – will – per-ish!" The Tankdramon said from behind Daisuke. "This – ves-sel – will not – be – de-stroyed!"

"You mean you fly like this normally?" Daisuke said as the ship pitched heavily right. "Give it up! This place is falling apart!"

"We – will – sur-vive! WE WILL GROW STRONGER! WE WILL E-MERGE AS THE SUUU-PREME LIFE-FORM!" the Tankdramon ranted. It pointed its energy cannons at Daisuke. "You – will – not – sur-vive! You – will – be – ex-terminated!"

"As long as the others got out," Daisuke looked at the energy cannons, "that's all that matters. I'd rather die a hero than a coward any day."

The ship suddenly lurched forward. The walls shook, the floors shook, the entire vessel rumbled with an intense vibration.

"A-LERT! A-LERT! POWER OVERLOAD! SHIP DET-O-NATION IN ONE MINUTE!" shouted a SEALSdramon as he looked up, its scouter monoeye twisting back and forth.

"HA! Well, now it's even!" Daisuke said, pointing at the Tankdramon. "You may get me, but I'm taking all of you with me!"

"NE-VER!" the Tankdramon said, charging its cannons. "EXTERMINATE!"

Daisuke closed his eyes. He sat in the darkness for a long time. He shuddered a little as a cold breeze swept past him.

"_Is this what it's like to be dead?"_ Daisuke thought as he shivered in the breeze. He opened his mouth and tried to speak. "It's so quiet and peaceful; I just wish it wasn't so dark."

"Try opening your eyes, numb nuts." Daisuke's eyes snapped open and he looked up at Miyako, who had her hands on her hips.

"Oh no, you're dead, too!" Daisuke said leaping up to his feet and grabbing onto Miyako and then looked at the others. "I thought you'd get away! So we all got killed…that's a bummer…"

Miyako just looked at Daisuke and shook her head. "I give up. His body might be alive, but his brain is dead."

"What? What do you mean?" Daisuke said as he followed the girl.

"Look," Iori said pointing to the left.

Daisuke turned and saw the dragons' ship in large, burning chunks crashing down into the rocky bluffs that had surrounded the city under the tree.

"But how?" Daisuke looked at the others. "I was trapped, about a hundred yards from the cargo bay, surrounded by Tankdramon."

"I set the teleport to lock onto digivices." Koushiro said, walking forward. "It teleported us out, and then it had to rebuild a charge. From there on it sought out more digivices. You must have stumbled into range with Veemon."

Daisuke spun around and saw Veemon lying on the ground. "Veemon!" Daisuke leapt towards the blue dragon and picked him up. "You're alive, I'm alive! We're all alive!"

"Ugh, anyone get the license plate of that truck." Veemon said rubbing the top of his head.

"Don't worry, Veemon, when we get home you're going to get a huge, huge, huge rice ball!" Daisuke said as he twirled the little dragon around. "It'll be the size of a beach ball!"

"Ugh, Daisuke, stop the spinning…I think I'm gonna…" Veemon clasped his hand over his mouth. Daisuke put Veemon down, who promptly ran to the edge of the cliff, hanging his head over the edge.

"I can't believe you actually pulled it off." Taichi said, walking up to Daisuke. He put a hand on Daisuke's head. "I'm sorry…"

"Sorry for what?" Daisuke asked, looking up at the spiky haired teen.

"Before we got here today…" Taichi looked down, and then over to Ken. "I kind of lost faith in you as a leader. I thought you were hiding out, running from your responsibilities."

"Oh, well, I did feel kind of useless." Daisuke said, looking down at the ground.

"No, you were just stressed, and I had no right to think ill of you for being scared." Taichi said he rubbed Daisuke's head, mussing the boy's head. "I should've known you'd come even if you were scared."

"Just next time, let's not go through the whole being captured thing." Yamato said with a mischievous smile.

"Guys, it's ok." Daisuke said, blushing. He looked to Ken. "The one that should be getting all the praise should be Ken. He's the one that told me we should fight even if it looks hopeless!"

Everyone looked to black haired boy with the blue eyes.

"Is that true?" Hikari asked.

"Well…" Ken looked down at the ground.

"Yes it's true! He told me that we need to keep fighting to keep the morale up!" Daisuke said, walking over to Ken and patting him on the back. "He said that just because we're mice in front of the lion and that we shouldn't back down!"

"Oh, so really, if it wasn't for Ken then we'd never have been saved…" Hikari said, walking up to Ken.

"I guess…" Daisuke said putting his finger on his chin and looking up in contemplation. "Yeah, it was because of Ken you guys got saved."

"Oh, well, then Ken is the one that really deserves this." Hikari said leaning in and kissing Ken on the cheek.

Ken's normally pale skin turned bright crimson as Hikari walked away. The other digi-destined blinked in surprise and Miyako shouted, pointing at Hikari as she walked past. Daisuke's jaw dropped to the ground and his eyes bugged out, and all the color drained out of his skin. Daisuke tried to form words but his throat wouldn't work and then the goggle-head fell backwards, and stared at the sky, blankly.

"Uh…Daisuke…" Ken said, kneeling down next to Daisuke after about ten minutes. "The others are leaving, Daisuke."

The boy didn't say anything but just looked up at the orange sky.

"Daisuke, it's getting dark!" Veemon said as the blue dragon pulled at his arms.

"She…kissed…you…" Daisuke said, absently, not looking at Ken, but directing his voice in the boy's general direction.

"I thought you weren't interested in Hikari anymore." Veemon said looking at his partner.

"Still…she…could've kissed me…" Daisuke whined, sitting up and frowning. "It's not fair…"

"I could kiss you." Ken said, with a smile. "Since Hikari kissed me, me kissing you would be like passing it down the line…like the transitive property it'd be like Hikari kissing you…"

"That's not funny!" Daisuke said jumping to his feet.

"You're right." Ken said as he started to walk away. "We wouldn't want Hikari telling that girl at your school that I kissed you…"

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!" Daisuke shouted, running after Ken. Ken ran from Daisuke, laughing as the flame-jacketed boy charged after him.

888

"Director Johnson, this is a surprise!" Agent Pierson looked up from his desk as the be-suited man walked into his office.

"Mr. Pierson, how goes Project Hamelin?" The blonde man asked as he sat down in the chair in front of the desk. Agent Pierson couldn't see his eyes through the man's sunglasses but he could guess the stern look coming at him.

"Fairly well, considering we're working with children." Agent Pierson said, shuffling papers on his desk. "The new boy, Marcus, has a little bit of an anger problem. He punched Kouki after Kouki's partner started beating up on Marcus's." Agent Pierson collected the sheets of paper on his desk, straightened them and tapped them on the desktop. "By the by, I've informed maintenance that we currently have an open air arena where the gymnasium had been…I'm afraid the gymnasium ceiling cannot take a blast from either Thunderbirdmon or GeoGreymon. It may be prudent to give us a location outside for further advanced training."

"What is a Thunderbirdmon, or a GeoGreymon?" Director Johnson's eyebrows twitched.

"That's what the kids call them; evidently all these monsters have species of sorts…and names." Agent Pierson said quietly, laying the papers down. He looked up at Director Johnson. "I don't want to send these kids into battle, director. Tell me this is all just an abundance of caution…"

"There was another surge from the other world." Director Johnson said, his darkly bespectacled face looking down for a second. "Dr. Kurata seems to think he's onto something. Some sort of weapon based upon the samples he took from the kids' creatures. Says he may be able to disrupt their matter pattern or something. He's calling it the Digital Reaper….but really it's just scribbles on his chalk board."

"Director Johnson, the kids talk, they say that there are rumors that something bad is happening in that other world." Agent Pierson sat back.

"That's why we're training these children, Mr. Pierson." Director Johnson got to his feet and walked to the door. He cocked his head back slightly. "Keep up the good work, Pierson. This could become the model for how we deal with these other world issues."

The office door closed behind Director Johnson. Agent Pierson pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Committing child soldiers should not be the model to deal with any situation…."

888

"I guess; it's back to business as usual." Beelzemon said as he looked down at Gennai.

"Yep." The man said putting his hands into his robe pockets. "I guess; we'll see you around."

"Look, the dragons won't be that easy to destroy." Beelzemon said as Gennai started to walk off.

"Oh, I know." Gennai said, walking away. He stopped and looked back at Beelzemon. "However, I feel it's not them I should be worried about…"

"Look, just…" Beelzemon said. He watched as the man turned and continued to walk away. Beelzemon sneered, turning away and opening his wings. "Never mind!"

Beelzemon took off, glaring down at Gennai as he flew away.


End file.
